LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GIFT OF
x-^.
Class
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GIFT OF
x-^.
Class
MAR 29 1911 GIFT
Commentary upon
Codex
Perez With Linguistic
the Maya-Tzental
Note
Concluding
Problem
the
of
upon
the
Maya Glyphs
BY
William E. Gates Professor
in
School
of
Headquarters,
Point
Antiquity,
Point
International
Loma,
Loma,
1910
California
California
Theosophical
With
the
Regards
Commentary upon
Linguistic
the
the Author
Maya-Tzental
Codex
Perez With
of
Note
Concluding
Problem
the
of
upon
the
Maya Glyphs
William E. Gates Professor
in
School
of
Headquarters,
Point
Antiquity,
Point
International
Loma,
Loma,
1910
California
California
Theosophical
Copyrighted,
1910, by William E. Gates
THE ARYAN THIOSOPHICAL PR ESI Point Loma, California
*r"
f~
NOTE THE
following paper was written for separate publication, with the view of summarizing some of the data afforded by the problems connected with the
Maya
glyphs, and also bearing
upon the evolution of language-forms
in their relation to
hu
man history it has however, upon the suggestion of Professor F. W. Putnam, been issued as one of the Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
The data themselves
are
twelve years, since the writer
accumulation
the
of
the
past
interest was, after various other
drawn
and fixed upon the languages of the great pre-Columbian American civilizations. few years ago, have led to the Subsequent researches, begun fields
of linguistic study, finally
belief that almost equal, parallel
found to
lie
is
still
has
rise
in these last
more manifest. yet
all
Maya
glyphs.
for the
then at the very climax
now
every
but to the writer the greatest door
that of the
The trend of Science its
results will in the future be
within the great Central Asian district, behind
what we know as Chinese to the past
to
thirty years, after taking
two or three
parallel
of materialism,
(so thought)
years, especially,
now apparent in nearly working in their own lines,
movement
is
each body of scientists seeming as if led towards recognition of
field,
and of worthier views. Professor
Socldy,
among many
One need
Professor
become
See,
greater past,
only mention the
Professor
work of
Munsterberg
others.
In this progress of Science the writer
Linguistics,
wider sense, to be of paramount importance, and that the philosophy of language is inseparable from Archaeology. in the
fOll
Its
OK:
*""*
J^
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PEREZ
CODEX:
PAGE
fiFfi^l V-JxTTTJ
PEREZ
CODEX:
PAGE
17
THE PEREZ CODEX
THE; PSREZ CODEX was discovered just fifty years ago by Prof. Leon de Rosny, while searching through the Bibliotheque Imperiale, Paris, in the hope of bringing to light
ments of
in
newly awakened study of Prebasket among was found by him in
interest for the then
Columbian America. lot
some docu
It
of old papers, black with dust and practically abandoned with the name few From chimney corner. torn scrap of paper then around
Perez, written on since lost,
it
received
its
it
but
name.
Being restored to its proper place in the Library, it was in 1864 photographed by order of M. Victor Duruy, Minister of Instruction,
and
few copies issued without further explan
The number of
atory notes than the printed wrappers. is
stated
Leclerc
and is
in
copies
by Prof, de Rosny to have been very small Bibl. Amer. (1878, No. 2290) it is given as only
Brasseur
Bibl.
Mex-Guat. (page 95),
as 50.
in 10,
copy
Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, most fortunate ac their publications as
in the library of the
and referred to
in
had the good fortune to secure copy some ten Leipzig years ago, and one other has recently appeared in have not traced any high price. catalog at Beyond these quisition.
other copy.
In 1872 Prof, de Rosny published
by hand, which, as stated by him
later,
reproduction,
may
drawn
be disregarded for
practical purposes.* In Archives paleographiques de
pi.
117-142.
Orient
et
de
Amerique,
atlas,
t.
I,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX In 1887 he issued
85 copies,
facsimile edition in
which up to the present time has remained the attempt to show the Codex in its proper colors, and has become exceed so
ingly difficult to procure;
much
was able
seven years search that
so that
to secure
it
was only
my own
after
copy.*
In 1888 he reissued the Codex, uncolored, with the same This has also letter-press, and in an edition of 100 copies.
become
scarce.
Each of these three vantages.
The
editions has
colored edition of
its
advantages and disad
worked
1887, having been
over by hand, in lithography, is defective in various places, both as regards the the figures and glyphs, and in the colors.
reproduced at
many
which was not
Coloring exists on the original all
in
the edition, and the colors given are in
Thus on pages 19 and 20 two
cases not exact.
different
reds are used for the backgrounds, whereas but one in
the original;
on pages
green, and on pages for
all
17,
15,
16 the figures are
is
found
turquoise
18 an olive green, the
four being turquoise green.
have been able to find no inaccuracy in the 1888 edition, which is indeed stated in the introduction to be entirely by mechanical process, without hand intervention;
produced by printer
but being re
ink in black only, not only do
not appear, but the chromatic values are actually far inferior to the photographs of
1864.
It
was
stated
further by Prof,
de Rosny that some features of the MS. had been lost by deterioration in the 25 years previous to his editions of 1887
and 1888, but
this
have not been able to verify
in
any im
portant point.
The photographs and purposes identical
the edition of 1888 are to
all
general
but, notwithstanding that the photographs
are steadily yellowing by age, the chromatic values are so far
have continually come to find them the court of final decision in doubtful matters. In very considerable number of instances close examination of the photographs superior that
Commcntar sur Pariser Mayahandschrift, Danzig, Forstemann does not know of the existence of this edition. In his
1903, Dr.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX has suggested the presence of faint lines of color on glyphs or figures, which was entirely indistinguishable in both of the
was yet
printed editions, and which
although sometimes with original
difficulty,
MS.
The proved
in every case confirmed,
by the examination of the
value, as well as the scarcity, of these photo
had my set photographed graphs was so great, that in 1905 few copies printed twice, by dry and wet plate processes, and after
careful comparison
plates.
It is
The
and
selection
of the two sets of
from these that the present edition has grown.*
present edition, save for the photographs thus repro
duced, having been entirely redrawn, and partly restored, fitting to detail just
At
the very beginning of
my
turn, bore its
upon me
as
introduction to
upon every other
is
in this respect.
Maya
enormous burdens placed on research therein
the
and
what has been done
it
at
The
student.
studies
every
subject
enthusiasm to the highest degree; greater than those of any like prob
possibilities stimulate
the rewards of
lem today;
and
yet,
years since the present
fifty
discovered, and thirty years since Dr. Forstemann
unsurpass able edition of the Dresden Codex, the actual workers on the
problem are
handful.
few scattered and obscure
references amongst the volumes on volumes of Spanish writ ers, nearly all untranslated,
procurable, and
many
most of them scarce or almost un
not even printed,
And
make up
the literature
few points of decipherment won and safely fixed by the researchers, from Brasseur, de Rosny, Pousse, Brinton and others generation ago, to Messrs. Bowto be searched out.
ditch,
have
Seler,
Goodman and
standing out in
ters, needless
few others of today, are
wilderness of guesses by
all
we
many wri
of naming.
Codex Peres: Maya-Tzental.
Redrawn and
Slightly Restored,
and
with the Coloring as it originally stood, so far as possible, given on the new and minute examination of the Codex itself. Mounted basis of in the form of the Original. Reproduction of the Accompanied by also by the entire Text of the Glyphs, unemended 1864 Photographs but with some restorations, Printed from Type, and arranged in Par allel Columns for convenience of study and comparison. Drawn and Point Loma, 1909. edited by William E. Gates. (Privately printed.)
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
10
Of
is
course the prime and absolute necessity of such study true facsimiles; but of using even these, taken as
they must be from is
much defaced
So from the very
too obvious for comment.
studies
began
to
cherish thoughts of the day
could be printed at hand.
and manuscripts,
inscriptions
type,
From one
and
first
my
of
when Maya
classified
indexes to the glyphs
such
can only be from another, in ab
point of
facilities
expected to come after decipherment; sence of bilingual keys, they necessity before that can be attained. So his work covers, great deal has been
done
in this
line
by Mr. A. P. Maudslay
in the
field
of the
inscriptions.
At
owe
of the assistance that Prof. F.
W. Putnam,
to the courtesy at that
Museum, and Mr. Chas.
of Peabody
Bowditch, in placing, with
among
must enter acknowledgment
the very outset therefore
freedom by no means universal
curators and researchers, their material at
with privilege of copying. reclassified the glyphs for
P.
am
my
disposal,
have
safe to say that while
my own
use as
my
yet without the copy which by Mr. Bowditch
went on, was courtesy
studies
allowed to make of his card index to the glyphs of the three codices, as start, this edition of the Perez Codex would not
yet have reached daylight through the
many
among which Maya studies have had to take At first it seemed possible to prepare
other occupations their chances.
font of separate
compound glyphs we find in the texts number of but after having such font made years ago, and printing couple of pages of the Dresden Co types for the various elements of the
was unsatisfactory it became evident that the proper Maya font of type must be both separate and com
dex, the result posite, as is
used in Chinese, and not separate only as
The type for the been made this way.
for Egyptian.
therefore
As
to the colored plates of the
that nothing whatever ities
text
is
we have
this edition
Codex herewith,
it
is
evident
gained by preserving the irregular
of the defaced parts of the Codex, while everything
be gained by making
all
have
as clear and distinct as possible.
is
to
The
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX first
was
step therefore
to
have
11
set of
photographed enlarge ments of two diameters, made direct from the 1864 issue.
From
made
these
and glyph
careful tracings, myself, of the black figure
making at the same time the separate enlarged drawings from which the type were after wards made. At this first drawing only the evident, the indis lines of the original,
putable parts were drawn. fied,
arranged in parallel
then gone over, and thus gained.
iliarity
cess of checking
down
new
to the
The type forms were then
columns, and compared.
points settled
classi
on the basis of the fam
fair estimate to say that this
It is
and verifying was gone through,
first
pro
to last,
some
proof-reading of the printed sheets,
final
was
All
fifty times.
One most important
fact
was
established by this process,
In the Perez Codex at
and must be noted.
be taken for granted, nothing charged to
no variants regarded as being identical shall advert few exceptions, to which
least,
nothing
is to
and
careless scribe,
with
in value later.
very
Wherever there
remains enough any glyph to show its characteristic strokes, it can be whenever the strokes regarded as safely indicated are not just those characteristic of any glyph, it cannot be in
Down
ferred.
to the very
end of the various revisions
found
myself able to add glyphs which at first seemed hopeless, and Relying on the yet when once seen became clear and plain.
have thus
presence of the photographs to check the work,
very considerable number to the glyphs at
added
In some cases, as in 6-b-ll
ent.
8-b-7, 8,
10,
and
where glyphs were only
and
first
appar
especially
in
partially erased, but
no
17,
other instances of perfect glyphs existed to compare them with,
have short,
let
them
alone,
without
may have made some
attempting restoration.
errors of eye, but
In
have guessed
nothing.
very few places
have restored glyphs totally erased, Such are some of relying on the parallelism of the passages. In
the
Ahau-numbers
the upper sections of pages
on those pages, the initial pairs of glyphs b, c, the first columns of pages 19 and 20,
in the central sections
on pages 15
to 18-a,
to 11,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
12
few day-signs on pages
and all
21, 23
and
necessitated by their different series,
no confusions
while
fore the eye.
page 3-b-l,
fair
3.
and hence can cause
seemed advantageous to have them be instance of the procedure is shown on
it
The temptation was strong
glyph here as on
The
These glyphs are
24.
all
to put the usual
the other pages, but the slight
variation in the lines left of glyph 3-b-3 forbade restoration will further be found
little
type-cards than in the colored plates, where
it.
bolder on the
have
in general
only endeavored to reproduce what could be seen actually pre sent.
The glyphs
restored on the upper part of page
would
seem hopeless at first sight but they are well-known and com mon forms, and the characteristic traces shown on the photo graphs belong to these and to no others known.
The cards of
type-printed text, in parallel columns for con
venience of study, are self-explanatory. Such an arrangement has from the first seemed to me indispensable for study and comparison. The paging of the de Rosny editions have retained,
except to change the practically blank page
to be
is page 25, since to number this as confusing. For the divis ions and the numbering of the glyphs have made my own ar
rangement.
It
is
possible that
section
on pages
to
11
should only go to the bottom line of the central figure, leaving section to read clear across the page, and another be
made
to the left of the nearly erased figures at the bottom
but the chances as shown by the lining and arrangement of the
columns seemed to favor decipherment can decide
it
as
definitely.
have given
it.
Only
final
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
13
THE COLORS THE
for solution,
add
number of questions
some of which
have cleared up and embodied believe insoluble. have also been
few are
in the plates;
able to
Codex afforded
colors of the
few wholly new
points, not indicated
by any of
the preceding editions.
Being unable to make inal,
prepared from
my
personal examination of the orig
enlarged black drawings, above
and
tioned, another full set including the figures
other parts showing any suggestions of color.
prepared
list
all
glyphs or
Upon
these
of nearly 200 questions covering every detail, the whole
together with certain general specifications,
made
men
the subject of
careful and exhaustive comparison with
This report, when duly returned with the various details set out, with the var ious colors shown in their exact tints by water-colors, and with the original at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
special analysis of the question of the fading of the colors,
was again checked and
verified
by the evidence of the three
editions.
In doubtful questions arising from faded colors, have sought to show the condition of the original as it exists today.
have aimed to In the solid red backgrounds and other places show as far as possible what the Codex looked like when fresh. This
as to
what
all
the colors in detail were
when
The following have quite solved. palette scheme seems to me about as near as the data permit us to formulate. fresh,
do not
feel that
permanent black, being the parts reproduced
in black in
the present edition. brick-red,
tinged with crimson, used
red numerals, and probably elsewhere.
for backgrounds,
This
we may
call
un
fading red.
genuine brown, as on the animals, pages 5-a, 8-a haps also elsewhere as lining ornament. pale pink as flesh color on the
human
figures.
per
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
14
as on the possible katun
blue,
number
series
on pages
23 and 24. turquoise-green, with varying amounts of blue tinge, on the spotted figures and in the numeral columns of pages to 18;
with somewhat
also,
bands on pages 21 to 24. The above colors are
Then next appears
less
of the blue, for the
all definite
and
15
"water"
positive.
brownish color used
for lining or
ornamenting various glyphs, and the clothing, headdress, etc., We find many shades from pale neutral etc., of the figures.
up
darker clear brown, and also
to
the
tail
may
definitely reddish, as
This brown
of the bird on the right side of page 23.
fading of the red of the backgrounds and numerals,
be
but the permanence of the color in these latter places positive
on
that
believe
it
garded as separate. We next come to
is
There
is
think
so.
it
so
should be re
color question related directly to de
cipherment, that of the very 15 to 18.
not
is
difficult
numeral columns on pages
no practical reason discernabl
fo
the use
of alternating colors save the avoidance of confusion between
Three bars together of different colors stand of one color they would make of course for three single bar combinations.
number
We
15.
therefore find here our above black, red and
blue-green alternating and clearly marked in places also find
but
we
many numerals
and grayish.
of varying shades of brownish, bistre called for especial care in the examination of
these points on the original Codex, and the water-color sheets
and explanatory notes show in detail the facts of the present Prior to the examination state of the Codex. supposed that these faded numerals were faded red, but this is stated in the report to be certainly not the case
the suggestion
is
made
that they are probably faded blacks.
From
at
the latter conclusion
least as to certain passages,
first
am
for
inclined in part to dissent,
two
reasons.
the actual permanence of the above noted
everywhere
else;
and second, passages
of pages 16 and 17.
In each of these
in the
we
These
main
are,
colors,
second columns
find faded
brown or
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
15
as gray bars, so placed between or next to plain would give, were they faded blacks, more than three black
bars together.
Another point on page 17 first
column, are
shown
in the
to the
same
five
blue
to be noted.
is
Some of
s.
1887 edition and in
light
my
In the top section, these blue dots, as
water-colors, have faded
brown seen elsewhere.
The brown and
the
second column of this page, middle division, as just mentioned, have also an identical chromatic value in the
blue
in the
photographs.
My one,
is
whole conclusion therefore, so far as that in these columns we have
can formulate
Some of Red, black, and blue-green numerals, as shown. numerals seem to have been outlined with black, of which traces
still
appear on the original, are seen in the photo
graphs, and indicated in the present color plates.
Several instances where the
Codex has been rubbed so
to leave only the outlines of original black numerals.
now gray
are
and
in the original,
have
left
as
These
them as black
touched in with gray. number of pale brown numerals which are either Finally,
outlines,
faded blue-greens, or else indicate fourth color in the orig inal. Which of these alternatives is the true one, cannot say.
The as
original
when
is
still
the three editions
made is yellowish brown
of which not
Codex
it
were taken from
it.
good condition
The
maguey paper of grayish
is
This
in practically as
as
material
tinge,
and
would be inferred from the 1887
noteworthy, as the wearing away of the coat ing with which the paper was surfaced for the writing, does
edition.
is
brownish place which, as in the 1887 edition, might be mistaken for traces of applied color. This coating is indeed not leave
better preserved in places than
is
shown by the 1887
edition
thus the headdress at the extreme left of page 20, just to the
Ezanab on the present color plates, shown with the coating all erased and the black writing as
right of the restored
left
on the ground-paper
which
is
incorrect.
is
if
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
16
THE PAGES COMING
DETAIL
then to the question of the subject-matter of the
feel that little is in
Codex,
IN
order beyond
simple analytical
description of the different pages, rather than any attempt at
The road of
an interpretation.
resemblances between
ficial
known
of other
general deductions from super
unknown elements and
the details
things from other times and places,
is
strewn
theories to be attractive traveling. by the wrecks of too am firmly convinced of the greatness and importance of the study we have before us, and the exalted civilization which
do not know how to interpret these monu but produced it Indeed the very persistence with which the interpre ments. tation
(which
applicable ficient
we
will
when
does
it
proof that
certainly
be
finally
we have
self-evident
come)
still
and everywhere
eludes us,
suf
is
not yet found the right road.
When
doorways to the past of mankind will open of themselves, and we will know more of human life and evolu do, great
tion
than
we now
and try
classify,
menta of the
search.
of the Perez Codex
the extent of
guessing.
It
only describe,
some of the mechanical impedi
to get rid
What we have ment;
we can
Until then
guess.
is
it
is
manifestly but
frag
we have no means of even however that what we have gives
originally
fortunate
several practically complete chapters or portions of the work.
Taking
first
tire side
the side of the
covered by
in
arrangement.
its
likeness to the
MS. paged
to 12,
we
find the
en
series of pictures with text, all identical
The few remaining others, for we see in
traces on page 12
show
their proper places part
of the Tun-glyph on which the figures on the upper section are seated ll-c-2,
of the Cimi,
Tun and Cauac
glyphs just as in pages
and 8; also of the columns of glyphs to the
As
left,
and
appear further, at least two more pages are required to complete this series, and it is as traces of the headdress.
will
supposition as any other that they were those which good would be numbered and and is, one before page
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
17
one after page
12.
For convenience of reference the divisions
of these pages
may
be lettered from
the upper portion,
to the left
large middle picture,
and
and below
to e;
being given to
columns of glyphs,
and
to the
above
to the text divisions
this.
Taking up
first
the central
section
figures,
e,
we
find
in
standing figure, with ceremonial headdress of varying head (a universal symbol of character, offering dragon
each
wisdom)
another figure, seated on
to
cushioned dais, the
The
side of
which bears various
in turn
extends his hands, either holding some object, or else
in
the
preserved;
wholly obliterated.
constellation
The standing
simple gesture.
pletely
"
"
signs.
latter
figures are all almost
seated ones
unfortunately largely or
In front of the standing ministrant
vase of offerings, usually
Kan
triple
com
figure,
and
in
is
two cases
In the upper part of the picture, facing in every
with knives.
case but one towards the ministrant,
bird figure, different
is
human head. On each on each page, and having in two cases page is an Ahau sign with red numeral, all of them together with series which (starting on the supposed page forming Ahau) 8,
6;
in
gives the succession 4, 2, 13, 11, 9,
other words
the
3,
1,
12, 10,
numbers of thirteen consecutive
The Ahau numerals
and 5, on pages 3, are entirely distinct, and enough traces appear on other pages If this katun series beyond question. to establish this as katuns.
chapter includes just
13,
round of numbers
be complete in 13 pages.
The
chapter
it
may
would of course be historical
in
contents, but the presence of this numeral Ahau-series clearly relates these
pages to successive
other bearings they
may
have.
some way, whatever The ten pages thus in some in
have to do with the lapse of 72,000 days, or not full series to quite 200 solar years, and the extension of the The background of this cycle of 20 katuns is quite likely.
way
definitely
section
is
red on each alternate page.
Returning
now
figures, nearly all
we
on each page three of persons or animals, seated on large base to
section a,
find
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
18
identical
practically
with the tun-glyph.
Fourteen of
the backgrounds to these figures are red.
seems to have been
figure
but very few are
left.
Above
at least six glyphs, of
these
MS. do
to
by
The erased margins of
4.
the
not afford space for another picture besides the three,
on either
side,
column on the
but they do just give
we have
across.
If
it
of each page.
left
existed,
room
If this second
Ahau-
Ahau-column
again the katun-series repeated in each row
13, 9, 5, etc.,
and
7, 3,
whether
decreasing by
12, etc.,
give the numbers of successive tuns.
tion of
for another
did not exist, the series (reading from the sup
posed page 1) of s,
The numerals of 6; each row de
two Ahaus with red numerals.
from page
creases
column contain
is
row exceed those of the lower
the upper
which
space entirely erased.
is
In the center of the section on each page ing at least
Above each
Once again the ques
simple number-round of thirteen terms, or
round of twenty terms, whether tuns or katuns, was originally displayed on the Codex, must be left undetermined. full
It is
further to be noted that faint
Ahau, on
higher
appear on page
line,
doubtful traces on page
8.
the pictures of this section
Section
umns.
and and
first
column
have disregarded in the type cards.
is it
definite
third
as well as
some
relationship between
and those of section
made up of 45
is
The
No
5,
traces of
or
more glyphs
2,
The other two columns
have
num
but this can be
The glyph
sake.
three times repeated at the beginning of page
and recurs
each page, is
three col
both in assigning reference numbers
regarded as solely for convenience is
in
apparent.
almost totally erased on every page,
bered in double column sequence downwards;
which
is
is
in parallel position repeated
the most
common
two
to five times
glyph in the whole Codex.
on It
38 times, including twice at the top of column on page 4. It heads the second column
identifiable probably
the erased first
several times on every page, except 7, which
any determination, and page 3, where what is left of the postfix at b-3 forbade the
rules
is
too erased for
slight its
have given limiting restorations.
variation
in
insertion under
suspect that
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX this
glyph
should be repeated
else
certain either
in
codices.
ll-b-9,
for
the
In positions b-6, b-8 or b-10 of each page
following reason.
occurs
3-b-9 and
at
19
that
face-glyph
the
found nowhere
is
Dresden
Perez,
or
If the initial glyph is repeated at 3-b-9
suggested, then (with
of repetitions of the
slight variation
initial
Tro.-Cort.
and ll-b-9 as
on page 4)
this series
glyph will in each case be closed by
the face-glyph in question.
marked feature of
section
is
the occurrence, near the
bottom of each page, of Cauac-sign, with or without the wing-postfix, and with prefixed and superfixed numerals, exactly as
common
is
in
connex-
*|
on the Inscriptions. This Cauac-sign is usually accompanied by an Ahau and Tun, each with numerals that are for the most part erased. This combinatio ion with the Chuen-sign
suggests distance-numbers and dates, scriptions;
in
stand for so
this
many
case
the
somewhat as on the In
double-numbered Cauacs would
uinals plus so
many
days.
The following
combinations, besides the one above, are also found
Section tral picture.
consists of 16 glyphs in
two rows, above the cen
Glyphs 15 and 16 on each page are erased.
chief general characteristic
Cimi-compound,
*&
*+ VI;
is
the
the
The
frequent repetition of the
on each page of numerals as
repetition
Cauac-sign with jjf^r^Q single and of Tun-compounds, with section
Gl3
in
subfix and with
varying prefixes (frequently faces), as especially see page 5. is Section triple row of glyphs, originally 21 in some instances, but with
many now
few general characteristics for
erased.
am
this section,
quency of the Cimi-compound as
establish
save again the fre
in section c,
of various Tun-
20
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
compounds,
and
With
of
two
the
glyphs
the exception of 10-b-4, the face ffiffy^
and on pages 15 both in Dres. and
with the tau-eye occurs only in this section to
18.
This glyph
is
Tro.-Cort., the
exceedingly
which
in
it
and
common
appears at 3-d-4,
6,
secondary compounds) no than 126 times in Dres. and 33 times in Tro.-Cort.
occurring less
its
(including
numerals and of
are the remains
Beneath section
heads and headdresses of figures which are
now
erased to give any basis for comment. most marked feature of the Codex
the
number of Tun-compounds,
feature
is
confined
too
much
very large exclusively,
to 11, and pages 23, with one exception, to the present pages classified list shows 28 compounds of this glyph, 24.
20 of these showing the subfix, and combined with The connexion of this fact with the face or other prefix. Tun-bases of section
and with the katun-rounds shown by
a,
the Ahau-series above referred to,
To sum up
manifest.
the general characteristics of this side of the
MS., and without attempting
we
is
to interpret
any separate glyphs,
find the following data:
The Cimi-compound occurs 25 times.
fQxYl i^ovo
an
i*
sub-compound
The numeral-compounded Cauac occurs 20 times. occurs 13 times on this side and once The glyph on page
\~)^D[
23.
v/JfcLSv
The Chuen-compound once only
ably
ftTT^ ^yT/Ji
|j>)
occurs 19 times and prob
on the other side of the MS.
The various Tun-glyphs occur 45 The
ace-glyph
^J^i&l
on the two
sides.
occurs 10 times.
he Kan-Ymix glyph
The glyph
times,
occurs 10 times.
occurs 37 times on this side and, with
changed postfix, once on page 24. With the exceptions noted, none of the above glyphs occur
prefix
at all
and
on the reverse
side of the
MS.
21
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX There are occurring in
With
all
different
Yax
fy^}
compounds,
MS.
25 times, 16 of them on this side of the
only ones
three exceptions the above glyphs
that are repeated
The
19
finally
in the
Codex with any marked frequency.
three exceptions are the face with tau-eye, already
mentioned, and the two glyphs occurring as an initial pair twelve times on pages 15 to tions a, b,
Of month satisfied
of
16
at
Zac,
sec
18,
c.
am
used as such
only
Cumhu, at 18-b-4 and of The glyph (rfijfa at 7-c-2 may 4-c-7. 12
Yaxkin.
also
be
[jr^lj
The only
cardinal point sign
is
that of the West,
occurring at 4-b-14 and again at 16-a-6.
There are besides these numeral Cauacs, 15 other Cauac compounds, occurring in all 17 times on this side, and
D""x")
twice on pages 23, 24.
Upon turning over the Codex, we find that whereas on side we have been considering the scribe limited himself to conventional
red numerals
we have
harmony of composition and
of color united with
the
with here and
and backgrounds,
touch of brown, upon this other side
there
the
wealth structure
marks
very high degree of artistic skill. It is not alone the accuracy of the drawing and the writing, such as we have noted in connexion with the study of the glyphs, but the whole that
manuscript as
it
lies
portion, that ability
tude of details into
open before us shows that sense of pro multi unify without seeming effort perfectly balanced whole, which
is
the
mark of developed and genuine culture. When we remember the exceeding difficulty of combining primary colors
positive into
brilliancy that
is
not garish, and the equal difficulty of
achieving artistic mastery in
we
conventional treatment of forms,
are simply forced to recognize that
we have
ence of an advanced school of art with
pendent citizenship. distorted,
full
If the figures look strange
we must remember
here the evid
rights of
inde
and sometimes
that our whole training has been
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
22 the
in
realistic
are prone to
by which they must not be judged.
others, but
more
we
by which
school,
judge all We have no
weigh these compositions in the scales of our art motifs than we have to weigh Greek rhythm of quantity or Saxon of alliteration against our by which we measure right to
rhythm of rhyme and
In fact
stress.
it
impossible for us
is
even to judge concerning the true harmonic effect of these other measures, and it may well be doubted whether the very soul itself of our meter
with these others
There
is
is
not empty and tinny as compared
quality for quality.
one great broad
line that divides the nations
civilizations of the earth, past
expression.
We may
the
It
literal.
languages; to
man
it
it
and present,
in all their arts
of
of the ideographic as against
call it that
controls
and
form of language and of the passage of thought from man
the inner
manifests in
determines whether the writing of the people shall gives both life and
form to
be hieroglyphic or alphabetic;
it
the ideals of their art.
distinction that
was
clearly re
when he
laid
down
It is
cognized by Wilhelm von Humboldt, the
incorporative characteristic essential to
languages
is
all
the
that
American
the result of the exaltation of the imaginative over
the ratiocinative elements of mind.
The time has passed when we think
that
Japanese pictures is due to the fact never happened to recognize children of nature in
perspective that these
that the absence of our
"
"
thing looks smaller in proportion to
they ought to come to us to learn.
measure
if
We
its
distance, so that
have come,
not yet fully, to recognize that whereas
thing to the eye, these other peoples suggest
in
some
we show
thought to the
And we should remember, and re mind, by their pictures. member always, that while our modern art having won its technical and artistic skill within the past few hundred years, is
now beginning
to
emancipate
the eye by efforts towards the
itself
from the materialism of
"
"
impressionist
methods, these
ancient peoples had long since arrived at the ability to convey
through the medium of harmonious composi tions of the most rigid conventional elements an artistic "
impressions
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX achievement which those
who know
its
difficulties
23 can alone
begin to appreciate. It
may be
modern
eyes,
quite easily forgiven to one trained with Western,
who
at first sight of these
monuments,
in total
ignorance of their meanings, sees them as strange or grotesque.
wears away, one comes to see the unfailing accuracy with which the glyphs are drawn, one And when, with this opinion of their makers has to change.
But when, as
their strangeness
familiarity gained, in its bearings as
one advances to an appreciation of the work whole, one has to acknowledge himself fac
ing the production of craftsmen
who had
only generations, but ages of training.
complete mastery in composition,
th
Such
inheritanc
of not
combination of
perfect control
of definite
and fixed forms, and hand technique, can grow up from bar would hesitate to think it barism in no few hundred years. could even come in greater
few thousands, unless they were years of and peaceful civilization than our two
settledness
thousand years of disturbed and warring European Christen dom have yet had an example of to show us. It is easy enough in the
absence of definite historical records, and in our general
human
and speculate about but the commonly accepted picture in our minds of it all; few savage wandering tribes settling and growing up in this ignorance of
evolution, to theorize
country some several hundred or Christian era, simply will not
fit
in
thousand years after the with the fact their ability
few hundred years later. Had we at Copan, the merits nothing but the Perez Codex and Stela
to produce such
works
of their execution alone, weighed simply in comparison with observed history elsewhere, would prove that we have to do not with the traces of an ephemeral, but with the remains of wide-spread, settled race and civilization, worthy to be ranked with or beyond even such as the Roman, in its endurance, de
velopment and influence
whose culture are
still
in the world,
totally
unknown.
and the beginnings of
As
to the
Codex be
we can only imagine what the beauty, especially of the pages we now come to discuss, must have been when the whole fore us,
was
fresh and perfect.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
24
The second
Codex has
side of the
to be treated in four divi
sions or chapters, the first of
which includes
For numerical reasons which
will
15 to 18.
appear, this chapter must
probably have begun, however, at least one page further to the
left.
These four pages are upper, middle and lower.
laid
out with three main divisions, of the upper section
is
erased for any comment other than that its arrangement seems to have been parallel in all respects with the middle section.
This
latter
shows three subsections, the backgrounds
cases being red,* containing each
human
or
and
in
some
picture (probably of
figure in every instance),
god
surmounted by
black
red numeral and by six glyphs, in double column.
gives 12 subsections for the four pages, which
Of
we may
c,
in each subsection
are complete, and no section
many
refer
the initial pairs of glyphs
to respectively as 15-a, b,
etc.
This
is
left
without the correct traces of the corresponding glyph for one or other of the positions so that although of the 24 glyphs are totally erased,
we may
safely restore
them
Other fea
all.
and frequency of the glyphs on
tures of the comparative use
these pages have already been given.
At
the top of each picture
is
found
These form the consecutive black
meral.
black and "
counters
red nu "
or inter
and the corresponding red day numbers of sub divided tonalamatls, so common in Dres. and Tro.-Cort. It val numbers,
is
customary
to
find
these tonalamatls divided into fifths or
four or five trecenas. 65 days respectively At the 53rd or 66th day the initial red number is again reached, fourths,
and the calculation at the left with is
(by hypothesis) repeated, starting again new day-sign below the first. Such column is
seen in the lower part of page 17, where
we
find
Oc, Ik, Ix
these are to be completed by restoring below an erased Cimi
Forstemann
(Comm.
of the back ground to the central figure on page 16 as black, instead of red he also describes the number columns as made up of red and black num erals only. There are many similar errors in his Commentary, due to his ignorance of the colors, and to the obscurity of the photographic Dr.
reproductions.
z.
Par. Mayahds.}
speaks
COMMENTARY ON
25
CODEX
THE) PEREZ
and Ezanab, completing the 260 days and bringing us around
The
Oc.
again to
total
of
the black
all
must always be some multiple of
series
And
as stated.
since each
counter
"
adjoining red numbers, wherever
its
"
"
counters
13, usually
in
any
52 or 65,
the interval between
is
black number
red and
are given, the other red number, whether before or after, can
always be
No
filled in.
middle division,
Two
column appear for the series in the and several of the numerals are also erased.
traces of this initial
obscurities
On
series.
must be cleared up before trying
page 16 right
partly erased
is
to
fill
out the
black numeral,
which from the traces may be either 10 or 11. Taking it as 10, we have 13 plus 10 equals an erased red 10; plus (on page But below the 5. This verifies so far. 17) equals the
we next
An
find
equals
plus
8,
MS. and
inspection of the
which
is
of course incorrect.
the photographs reveals
red
dish spot (or perhaps even three such spots) in the extreme
per right corner of the picture space, 17-a, and also
under the black
in 17-b.
It is
up
dark spot
possible that the separated red
dots (one doubtful) are to be read together as 3;
or that the
are to be disregarded in the count (just as
red dots under the
on the next page, 18-a), and the red number for If 17-a found in the upper right, above the seated figure.
is
the red
the red
Or
it
number
may
in 17-a
is 3,
the
two numbers
in 16-c
be assumed that the spot under the
must be
11.
in 17-b belongs
which figures out. The final result is the same, as we have either 10 and 6, or 11 and 5, in these two in 17-b. places, and either reaches properly the clear red to
it,
instead of
making
we
In 18-a
5,
find black 26, with
small red
large red 13 in the usual place at the side.
We may
The
will
have
part of the series, which requires 13,
be disregarded, as
and nothing
below, and
else.
now
possibly set
down
small figures above the the line ting in parentheses
(6) 9( )(2) (6)
9<
all
black counters, and put
numbers restored
13 11 >(2)
the series as follows, using
(H) 13 10 (10)
(13)
26
13
(13)
10, 26
or else
13 10 10
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
26
This leaves us the black number at the beginning, in 15-a, and both numbers at the end, 18-c, still not filled in. Adding together
all
the counters
we
black numbers, one at each end.
might expect
it
If the total
to have been comprised within the
15-a to
sections
two missing were 104, we
get 82, plus at least the
But 104
18-a.
130 days, although
into the space.
fraction.
an unknown division,
is
half,
and would hardly get
tonalamatl
not
is
four sub
If
we
begin the series
upper division of the page (as occurs in Dres.) and come around to the middle division, the probabilities would require in
that it
to the left
began
as
it
like
We
The
of page 15.
probabilities of this series
page 14 to the left, ar the other four, and forming one chapter with them.
therefore, indicate at least
is,
ranged
260 days, and again also that
series of
full
displayed
it
have
now
to deal with the puzzling
numeral columns,
alternating colors, found to the left of each subsection of
in
the upper and middle divisions
have been referred to
at
some length
cussion of the colors, and there
As
is
These
all.
the preliminary
in
little
in
more
dis
that can be said.
there said, the entire reason for alternating the colors can
not be certainly assumed.
where
it
say that
Alternatio
needed to distinguish bars, but also where we have of dots, which are of course self -separating. And to
it is
Only four or five footing of the numbers
from 113 to
we
mere begging of the of these columns are complete,
only for artistic purposes
question.
and
153,
six times
and
tells
in
it
nothing.
On
the parts that are
with
black number
multiplier),
and also once
^3
(perhaps
double Chuen, as in Tro.-Cort. is
is
each gives us varying amounts
Chuen
have
apparently belonging to or 20,
of color occurs not only
is
only lines
left
24 columns
The use of
the red &a/-sign,
frequent.
The lower
division of these pages
four sections on each, which
Each contains
we may
picture, with black
surmounted by four glyphs only. incomplete
neither
is
was
also subdivided, into
refer to as d,
e,
f,
g.
and red numerals as above,
The
pictures are
all
quite
there anything to add to what has been
already said of the glyphs.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
27
In the middle of page 17 one tonalamatl ends, with
and another begins, also Oc, day have been
is
divided into fifths, and the
however only gives
initial
22
total
2<
15
in
of
two
9ta es
>
(4)
6,
with the
starts
column must
The
Oc, Ik, Ix, Cimi, Ezanab.
in full:
tion of the series gives:
is
The second
6.
red
10
restora
This
6.
There
the black counters.
space to the right for another section, but whatever
The
have been written there has entirely disappeared.
may last
seem unmistakable, the especially so. as an If we regard the last 5, and then restore This is the one in section 18-g, it would give the necessary 52.
three numbers
passage in the Codex where mistake in the writing; for less for
some
entirely
can see no
way
but to assume
does not equal
plus
unknown reason
the error
and un
6,
clear.
is
The preceding tonalamatl may have been divided either into 52- or 65-day periods. If the period was 52, it must have begun with an initial column on page event it would be restored as follows (initial
giving 52.
somewhere page
6)<
19in two stages)
In this case to the left,
In this
15, right side.
(12)65712(12
in
two stages)
third tonalamatl
11 )86
must have begun
and ended on the erased right side of
15.
would carry the initial column back the extreme edge of page 15, when we would have this: different restoration
to
(initial
11 6)<
>(8)
(1)
(H
stages)
(12)65712(12
two stages)
86
giving 65.
To
choose between these two would be mere guessing.
The well-known pages 19 and 20 come next. they make four compartments, up and down the
Together full
length
of the pages, two with red and two with black backgrounds.
Each
is,
or rather was, preceded by
The
column of 13
column on each page have But apart from though no traces of it are left.
bearers."
left
"
year-
restored, al its
manifest
width of the red ground measured, it will be found
necessity, as part of the series, if the
on page 20 (see the photographs)
is
to be just the correct proportion,
and part of the straight
left
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
28
edge of the red can
be seen, just left of the rod in the
still
hand of the mummy-figure, and leaving just room for the have only shown 12 Ezanab column. In the colored plates
measurement of
instead of 13 day-signs in each column, but
the space above and below shows that the missing four are to
These two pages
be placed at the top and not at the bottom. therefore have application in some
to 52 solar years, be
Lamat and ending with
ginning with
These
way
"
"
year-bearers
Akbal (Votan).
13
are those of the Tzental instead of
the Yucatecan system, as described by Landa, and on these two
pages
rests, so far as
regards
ment of the Codex Perez northern
Maya
Inscriptions
And
district.
of
that
subject-matter, the assign
than to the
to the Palenque It is
region,
accord with what
in
known
is
thus to be considered with the
and with the Dresden
known
Codex.*
of the state of the different
parts of the country at the time of the Conquest, and of the history of the break-up and extinction of the
Maya
empire,
it
must be assigned the greater antiquity on that account. It is probable that pages 19 and 20 had no text passages. Pages 21 and 22 again, judging from the coloring and the Each had on the upper arrangement, seem to form pair.
some 70
part probably five rows of glyphs,
10 or
12 are at
all
hitherto discussed,
from
Contrary to
recognizable.
it
may
The
right to left.
in all, of all
which only the pages
be that these glyphs are to be read faces in these
look to the right,
all
and the customary prefixes are all on the right. In classifying these glyphs, therefore, they must be all reversed.
The
greater part of page 21
is
framed
in
and divided up
by green bands, evidently for water, two branches of which, after crossing constellation band near the bottom, end one other in
in falling torrents, the
(TT1| all
the sun,
and
itself
circle
kin-sign, surrounding surrounded by four dragon heads,
figured in the midst of the torrents.
Where
Muluc
to
place
the
Tro.-Cort., indicated on
in
view
Below of
the
this
symbol
apparent
pages 34~37, and the 13 immediately next to 13 Ahau on page 73 (13 Ahau 13 Cumhu am not ready to say. only possibly in year 12 Lamat) Ix,
Cauac years
Kan,
Cumhu
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX is
the open
mouth of
dragon, towards which
black- faced
pointing
hand
torch.
The glyph
To
figure, nearly erased,
wristlets characteristic of the
looking and
moon and
Days, described by Schellhas as the is
is
of the god D, the Ancient of
figure,
the left of the torrents
29
but with the
god of death, and holding
frffiffi
in the
occurs written in the torrents,
p)H@
at the left side.
The green bands
divide
the middle of the page
six
compartments containing, so far as not totally erased, 65 dayAll my efforts to relate these signs signs, in columns of five. either to each other or to
series in the codices,
any other
have
The upper seven columns have each
so far been fruitless.
black numeral beneath, running from right to
and the dot of another
left,
123356
6.
Each of the columns of
five day-signs
forms
closed cir
In the upper row the 1st and 6th
cuit returning into itself.
columns show successive days apart in order; columns 2, 16 apart in order. The 1st in the lower row and 4, at intervals of 8, the
column
is,
is
at
of 16.
nt rv rval al
is
The 3rd
with the 4th, an exception, the intervals being suc
cessively 8, 4, 4, 8,
error
2nd and 5th
3,
That
16.
shown by the
this
fact that the
probably not
is
same
scribal
though begin both columns. The 6th and series,
ning with different days, occurs in possible 7th columns of the lower part are indeterminable. We thus have three rounds of times 8, or 40 days seven times 16, or 80 days rounds of two irregular rounds of 40 days.
of
These are not such columns as could form the beginning series of tonalamatl fifths, in which the successive days
come 12
apart.
So
that this section
Mr. Bowditch suggests to
to be read with each
of
the
me
must be
that the
day signs
left
numbers
in
unexplained.* are
their
respective columns, and, being placed in the middle, may apply both to the upper and lower sets. The strongest objection can see to this is that the numbers are black, instead of the usual red. In this case, instead of inter and 16, giving rounds of 5x8 vals of 40 and 5x16 80 days, we
would have
intervals of 156
and 208 (from
Ymix
to
Muluc, etc.), and 780 of rounds 1040 if read giving days respectively. Or, upwards, we would have 52 and 104 day intervals (1 Ben to Chicchan, etc.), and rounds of 260 and 520 clays. But whichever be the case, the page is
sui generis,
and
its
why
beyond
us.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
30
At
the
of page 21
right
solid
begins
red
background
which probably extended right across page 22. Two standing seven seated figures, spotted green figures appear on page 21 one green spotted, on page 22. winding dragon whose body is Page 22 is crossed by narrow green band covered by the constellation band." "
two of the upper figures. Below the dragon and this green band are seen, seated above the open mouths of two erect dragons, two figures in conversa also winds across the page, inclosing
each bearing various insignia of the death god. curious cartouche outline, partly erased, at the lower tion,
what seems
incloses
of the
to be
13 Ahau,
very right,
hand dot
3, 6, the right
being erased.
On
pages 23 and 24 the ceding pages disappear, and
we have two
gether, of glyphs, day-signs
and small
backgrounds of the pre
brilliant
pages, to
figu figure res, s, fine finely ly
is
apparently
and spar
The body of
ingly illuminated with the usual four colors.
dragon
to
the
continuous from page 21, and crosses
these pages entirely with the constellation band, displayed along its full
length.
The upper
part of these two pages contained originally 91
glyphs, perhaps to be read
and
22.
The
from
right to left, the
same as 21
faces look to the right, the usual prefixes and the
few numerals are also on the right of their respective com pounds. Many of the glyphs are the same as those on pages to 11, reversed cially noted.
At
belong, postfixed,
for first
Glyph 23-a-ll should be spe the numeral prefix, 6, appears to
left.
sight
to glyph 23-a-17.
But on investigation we
same compound, ya.v-chuen with ^mJ prefix, also attached. The 21-a-8 and 24-a-26, in each case with the
find the at
(555)
affix just
glyph 23-a-12;
and include the
below
this
number
is
so that glyph 23-a-ll as prefix.
At
also plainly
prefix to
must be read
24-a-26,
j|
same glyph is written left to right. few other glyphs on these pages which There are also Such for instance, as cannot be regarded as right to left.
the
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX at 23-a-19 ..j
sive),
and 24-a-17.
In this glyph the
at the side is properly
and
31 affix
(perhaps the posses do not recall any instance of its use as postfix. prefix
In the affixes, the superfix and prefix position eral rule be regarded as
postfix positions.
as
gen also the subfix and
wholly identical
But also as
may
general rule the two pairs are
believe not to be interchanged,
any more than we interchange
and endings in English; this rule is not universal for all affixes, as some seem able to go anywhere, but it is one have always regarded in my glyph classifying. As to
prefixes
it
is
to be noted that this
symmetrical glyph and
is
as there can be no doubt that these glyphs were equally legible to the
Maya
reader written in either direction,
well be
may
it
regarded as unimportant, and not to be rated even as an error. is
still
affix
to the right
is
written left to right, as in
postfix, the
certainly
in the usual left to right order, (JJ0
is
Here the wing j^^f
stronger similar case.
all its
superfix
and the main element
other instances.
And
*"
again in point.
The
iace-tun
compounds on these pages, and
also
on the
opposite side of the manuscript, should be particularly noted.
Below the
band, inscribed on
constellation
band (the waters of space or the sun glyph
[F"o"l)
?) are
wavy green
seven repetitions of
within the shields.*
Between
each appeared probably two black s. The sun-shields are about to be seized by different animals, dragon, tortoise, bird, etc., seeming evident suggestion of either an eclipse, or the passage of the sun into some zodiacal sign. Another series of seven sun-shields, on the green band, separated by numeral s,
and attacked by animals and
skeleton, crosses the lower part
of the pages.
Between these two bands we five
series
of columns of
day-signs each preceded by red numerals.
Allowing for
the space erased
find
have
last
column to the
right,
have retained the usual term shields flaring forms which embrace the sun glyph, though without accepting its appropriate ness. They might with equal likelihood be conventionalized wings. "
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
32
and part of the preceding. as at least
umn
to
This gives 12 columns only, where 13 are required. There may have been 12th col
the left of page 23,
where there
space for this,* leaving the dragon
column so as
to pass to page 22.
tinued on across page 25
just the
is
proper body to curve above the
The
scries
may have con
13 columns on pages 23, 24,
and
full cycle of 20 columns. page 25, would make And in this connexion it should be noted that the dragon body with constellation band goes almost to the edge of page 24
more
filling
with no sign of ending or turning, such as might be expected And if the constellation dragon if the chapter ends here. continues over page 25, the column series
may
well have done
the same.
Before discussing this series it will be of advantage view what the Codex gives us on the question of reading
left
to right or right to left. First, in
both the Dresden and Tro.-Cort. the glyph faces
look to the left
from
and, as shown by the calculations, reading
left to right,
with
is
very few possible exceptions, such as
the tables on Dres. 24, 64, 69, etc.
In the Perez, as shown by the tonalamatls on 15 to
18, the
52 year-bearers on 19 and 20, and the katun-series on to the general direction of the reading is also left to right.
Above or below each of pages 23, 24,
make read
is
to be
the red
found
number columns of
left to right.
It is not, to
customary Ahau-sign,
marked others,
parallelism
(M).
by
2,
if
we
be sure, accompanied by the
but, taken in
of the glyphs,
connexion with the
face-tun glyphs
on these two pages with those on pages
discussed, the possibility that
these
These numbers
blue number.
katun-series, starting with 4, decreasing it
12,
katun-series
is
and also
to 11, already
part of this
subject-matter must be considered.
On
the other hand, the glyphs in the upper part of
all
four
Forstemann ignores the space on the right of page 24, and restores two columns to the left of page 23 in order to make up the thirteen columns; but, as shown by the edges of the pages in the photographs, one column restored in each place will just fill the obliter Dr.
ated
space.
33
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX pages 21 to 24 face to the right, and, as already
out in
set
written in reverse position as regards
detail, are practically all
And so also does the Eb-glyph in the daynow considering face to the right. These col
their prefixes, etc.
columns we are
umns, unlike those on page 21, which include of the day-signs:
only include
signs,
Eb
and Ahau
all
of the 20 day-
Kan, Lamat, Eb, Cib
being the only non-symmetrical one of these.
have thus quite strong evidence, especially as provided right to by the position of the prefixes, for posed by the direction of this katun-number
left reading,
series
if
op it be
In Egyptian writing, of course, the direction of the read
one.
ing changes with the facing of the figures.
To
now
return
to the
columns themselves,
the day-signs
all
any one column have each the same red numeral, so that we have Lamat, Kan, Ahau, Eb; and so on. The Cib, towards the red numerals to each column also decrease by in
passu with the blue numerals.
pari
right,
column downwards, turning into
Ahau,
it
form
will
we
If
read each
closed circuit or round, re
Cib to with intervals of 104 days, from But if we Cib. and again from Eb back to
itself,
etc.,
next try to go to the next column, the series breaks, for from like break whether Eb to Lamat is only days. We get
we
read upward or downward, or right to
Taking the
left.
columns separately then, the entire series (whether made up of 13, 20 or any other number of columns) cannot be made to read in one regular
series,
with
constant interval between the
successive days of the whole.
But,
we
if
restore
two columns, making 13 columns, and
then read horizontally across, either right to right,
one
words, read is
we
of the
first
day of the second line and after going through the whole
line after another, the first
follows the last of the
65 terms,
this
first,
return again from the last of the last line to the
constant interval. In other always with section could be written around wheel. If we
first
left to right, the distance
232 days; Dr.
or left to
left,
Seler
232x65 reading;
15,080.
from (10 Kan) to Or if from right to
Gesammelte Abhandlungen,
I,
Cib, etc., left,* the
515.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
34
from (12 Lamat) to 13 etc., is 28 days; 28 1820. That both of these products are multiples of truism, and cannot in any way require us to see
interval
364,
260
is
Nor
tonalamatl reckoning as the basis of this passage. separate clay-column
we
Finally, if
page 25, to
The days, to
probabilities
would not regularly follow line 1, and so on. then, as derived from the succession of the
horizontally,
in
that this
section of 65 terms,
is
And
whichever direction.
since the subdivision of 15,080 days left) into
often found.
fifths,
katun-round of 20 terms, the circuit would
seem almost conclusive
be read
each
should assume that the series went on across
full
be broken; line
tonalamatl in
is
(or 1820,
if
then,
read right to
65 terms, necessarily gives us successive day-numbers
decreasing (or increasing) by 2, the likeness to th katun-series Or, on the other simple truism. may be only apparent think hand, in view of the glyph similarities (a point which should always be given close attention), there may be some relation to the katun-series
spite of the
in
all
right-left or
left-right difficulties.
What
part the blue
number
Dr. Seler,f suggests that they are
term ahead 20 days.
Each blue number
explanation.
and
Kan The
is
blue
elsewhere, and
This states
series
cannot say.
plays,
"
corrections,"
fact,
set
each
but does not give any
less
is
to
than
its
red column,
of course 20 days later than 13 Kan.
is is
true
found
blue,
quite
in
Gcsammeltc Abhandlungen,
I,
from the turquoise blue of these numbers only. distinct
515;
"
Zur mexik.
Chronologic."
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
35
THE MAYA GLYPHS our knowledge of the meanings of the glyphs
to
is
and purposes limited to the direct tradition we have through Landa, and the deductions immediately in volved in these. We know the day and month signs, the num to all intents
still
and
including
bers,
four units of the archaic calendar
20,
count (the day, tun, katun and cycle), the cardinal point signs, We have not fully solved the uinal or the negative particle.
month
sign,
which seems to be chuen on the monuments and
We
are able to identify
what must be regarded as metaphysical or
esoteric applications
cauac, or chuen, in the manuscripts.
of certain glyphs in certain places, such as the face numerals.*
But every one of these points
is
either deducible directly
by
necessary mathematical calculation, or else from the names of certain signs given
by Landa
in his
day and month
list,
and
then found in other combinations, such as yax, kin, etc. That we have as many of the points as we have, and still cannot
form is
the key
constant wonder
The innumerable perficial
that
but
we cannot read
the glyphs
fact nevertheless.
efforts to identify the glyphs
by
appearance, calling the banded headdress
their su "
pottery
and explaining the face-glyph of the North there tortilla dish by, because in Maya xaman is north and xamach decoration,"
say nothing of others
(to
still
writers), have broken down, as instance because
this
it
united
more
was
host of
by
fanciful,
mention
to be expected.
fully the results of
illustrates
super
with
seeming ineradicable tendency even among those most able students who have added the most to our stock of Maya knowledge (among whom Dr. ficial
analysis,
Brinton was certainly one of the
foremost),
to
treat
these
glyphs as carelessly done, to disregard the differences between manifest variants, or else to talk freely, whenever passage
The Tibetan
use of symbolical words in place of numerals is worth noting here, even though we do not know the Maya face numerals well See Csoma de Koros, Tibetan enough as yet for any comparison.
Grammar, Grammaire
Calcutta,
1824,
pp.
Tibetaine, Paris,
155
et
1858, pp.
seq.;
also
157 et seq.
Ph.
fid.
Foucaux,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
36 does not
fit
which
the explanation
being worked
is
of
out,
scribal errors.
In the
these glyphs are to be interpreted prim
first place, if
by the Yucatecan Maya dialect (one in which we have most ample printed and MS. lexicographic material), and if in that dialect no other words at all resembling .vaman and arily
xamach
are found, as
we
are told, then
(if the
Mayas named
tortilla dish) North, by pun on wherever this banded headdress is found, we must assume the
the north
star,
or the
That
text to be treating either of the North, or of tortillas.
might safely be
break
left to
down
shall also see that the explanation
of manifest, important variants.
own weight
but
we
of
its
is
given in total disregard
This banded headdress ap
pears ornamenting at least separate and distinct
five
one
faces definite
wholly
human
characteristics,
face, the others with various other
the most
which are the monkey-like
face
frequent and prominent
and mouth we see
glyph for the north, and
sort of bird
ering the back of the head.
of the
in
plumage cov
These two are separate,
We
are never combined, and must be classified rigidly apart.
have therefore three elements, the monkey face, the plumage covering (if we may call it so), and the banded headdress. It is
obvious that while the monkey face
North, the bands are not specific at
on
my own
part as yet, but
it
be specific of the
but general.
all,
with the greatest diffidence that
It is
tations
may
suggest any interpre
is
of course certain that
the distinction of masculine and feminine existed in the spoken
language, and will
have
it
to be
syntax of glyph
At
must
exist
somewhere
prefix, not
formation
postfix
must
in the glyphs.
for
follow
what that
may
And
call
it
the
of the speech.
the bottom of Dres. 61 and 62 are seven identical Oc-glyphs
with subfix, and with prefixes. with the
One this
is
woman
curl,
Five of these prefixes are faces
recognized on the figured illustrations.
face with the banded headdress.
headdress occurs not infrequently on
with no other characteristic,
it
is
not
Remembering that plain human face
far guess that
it
may
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
37
such
headdress.
have denoted In this event
lord, entitled to
freeman, it
may on
the one
simple mascu
hand serve as
and on the other, to attach the idea of lordship to other glyphs with which it is incorporated, as the North Star, or region, the Lord of the Firmament. line
definitive, the prefix ah-,
This illustration serves to show what seems to tial
work we have
preliminary of the
which
have so far devoted most
"syntax"
and the part to The glyphs must be
effort.
of their composition, studied.
their positions,
essen
in hand,
determined, compared and classified, and what the
me an
have called
The
particles
and
the various incorporated elements, are of the
utmost importance, though they are very frequently ignored.
They are the written picture of the spirit of the spoken lan The task most looked forward to in this con guage. nexion has of course been
the Dresden, but having started
smaller was have given, upon the Perez for the reasons task in itself, and could be brought to completion within less
As
time, while serving as part of the larger work.
the deter
mination and classification of the glyphs had to proceed all as Index one work, it me not only to complete for this codex, but also to print the text in type,
and to verify
and bring out such facts regarding the color questions as was both of them stages needed in the general possible to do In doing it work. have studied with my hands as well as
with eyes, and have been well repaid. The actual labor has not been small, but it has been worth it all if only to see before the eyes something of what this fresh and new. ation
For as
may have made some
photographs will be
The
have
classification
difficulties
in
detail,
Codex must have been when
said,
while in
my
colored restor
mistakes of eye, for which the
have guessed nothing. of the glyphs meets of course with some check,
but
simple general outline.
can readily be cast into quite Something over 2000 different com it
pound forms are found in the three codices. The simple ele ments composing these are perhaps 350 in number, and may be divided broadly into main elements and affixes or particles. First of course
come day and month
signs, which, with
kin,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
38 tun, kal, will
few marked variants, use up 50 numbers.
and
come
the faces, about 75 simple elements.
mal and bird heads and hands, crosses,
and the
etc.,
about
Next the
ani
Next
numbers.
the
of conventional or geometric some 75 particles.
Then
another 75.
The cards
figures,
Next
list
required for the
50 numbers, including only
first
compounds formed from day-signs and excluding day-signs used simply as such, amount to practically one half of the
number required
for the whole index.
Certain elements, not
ably the kin, the tun, the monkey-face with banded headdress,
with tau-eye, the yax, the cross, fact of note, as it is great number of compounds
already referred
produce
evident that the
to,
number of compounds, having due regard
our limited material, idea in the
Mayan
an index to the relative position of the
is
vocabularies.
fall
of the day-signs pro
others
by which their relations
derivatives,
and
readily into
Some
The many. system of primary and secondary
duce practically no compounds,
compounds
to
great
be easily
may
studied,
their proportions recognized.
to the distinguishing
Coming
the fact that the thre
den and Perez so.
Every
is
codice
of variants, one
differ.
The writing of
meets
Dres
regular and accurate, the Perez exceedingly
different variant
Tro.-Cort. the writing
is
must
accounted
crude and careless, so that
evident abbreviations which are
many
first
not
for.
In
we have
genuine variants.
In the next place, certain regular differences occur in this or that
glyph
or
particle,
Thus
manuscripts.
between the
the Perez uses
forms
(TO?)
"d
of
the
different
the others
and so on.
comparison of the compounds shows that these must be the same. The regular variations between the three manuscripts and variations of abbreviation, when well evid enced,
may
be eliminated.
The day-signs have many
variants,
mostly quite simple,
checked positively by the the form in some dayseries. Ix has many forms. There are at least three entirely different Cimi forms There are found
and
two
all
different
fT\
forms of fcVj
L^J
L^y
the closed eye, one
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX of which certainly different
as to
is
Cimi, the other occurs regularly in such think never as
compounds (and
make
different
it
necessary to separate
meaning
Whereas
simple day-sign), it
it;
line is to
has probably
that of sleep.
perhaps
entirely
noteworthy technical of the glyphs.
39
be found in the drawing
in the case of the day-signs, faces,
and
conventional forms in general, certain variations of handwrit ing, etc., are evidently permitted, ite lines,
alike.
in
but only within certain defin
some few animal glyphs no two instances are
just
In other words, the glyphs in general are conventions
with established meanings
actual writing
pictures of birds or animal forms,
lowing convention, but nature.
;*
but
we
where the writer
The freedom
also have
is
not fol
of style used in
the latter case only serves to emphasize the conventionality of the former, and to separate the entire system ture or rebus writing.
from
either pic
See the following fish-glyph forms:
These pictures are almost exclusively in uncompounded forms, whereas the conventional glyphs, whether human, animal or otherwise, are subject to the general rules of incorporation.
Writing
is
system of conventional forms with established
meanings, corresponding to and reflecting the structure of the spoken language; some picture elements whose value as such has remained either wholly or partly present in the minds of those who use them, are not inconsistent with genuine writing
when its
present they add vividness to the writing, and emphasize
combination of picture forms only, certain degree, be used as means of communication to
ideographic character.
may
but can never constitute writing;
that, like speech,
must pro
vide for the expression of the relationships and categories that
make up
the structure of language.
real script, as is so These [the Maya glyphs] do not represent often- maintained, but are only pictures which have been reduced to the narrow space, made cursive." appearance of letters, contracted to Well? Dr. Eduard Seler, Codex Vaticanus No. page 65. "
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
40
Egyptian writing, which is of course true uniting, contains It has symbols and also pictures, not elements of every class. only of things or creatures, but of actions as well, to
narrow
space,
still
ranking
as
made
such,
cursive
stand
nounccd, and have syntax, which
words is
contracted
these pictures, although
"
for
"
they
the crucial
can
test.
be
pro-
Egyptian
unrecognizable forms, whose meaning has become simple convention, but which
still
which are not pronounced for themselves, but
It
only serve as determinatives. is
stand for ivords, or particles.
use of determinatives
(Such
not limited to hieroglyphic writing, but
alphabetic ative,
the second
to distinguish
both pronounced
in the
word
too
is
is
possessed also by
strictly
determin
from the preposition to, Tibetan has an elaborate system of
the adverb too
alike.
used as grammatical determinatives.) And then Egyptian writing finally has pure alphabetic elements. As to Maya, think it far more than likely that, when at si en
last
etters
deciphered,
it
will be
found to contain most
if
not
all
of
There seems every evidence that it is made up of pictures with probably both concrete and abstract meanings; word-conventions; and grammatical par these classes
ticles.
mutatis mutandis.
It is at least
probable that there are also silent determ
and not unlikely that there is also pure phonetic or That the latter element is not the basic alphabetic element. inatives
one
may
think be
now regarded
as established.
CONCLUSION Introite,
IT
is
my
not
nam
et hie dii sunt.
conclusion to
desire to add, as
comment
bearing on the restoration and interpretation of Mayan hiero of the data which tradition glyphic texts, any general discussion
and the early Spanish writers have left us of the mythology, rites and customs of the American races; and still less to run line of attractive analogies
out
between isolated instances of
any of the various
their words, symbols or works, with those of
nations of the other hemisphere
nor to build up any theory of
descent or intercourse with any of these latter as today to history.
The
subject before us
the written and traditional data
too
little
understood;
is
on
its
known
very face too vast;
are entirely too scanty and
and while we are
obliged to desig
still
nate the various gods and personages of the Codices as god A, B,
etc.,
and are unable to
single inscribed date in
Memoranda on The obscurities
the Chilam Balam Calendars, C. P. Bowditch, of the Chronicles render the questions con For instance, the im death exceedingly difficult.
See 1901.
fix definitely*
nected with Ahpula mediate context in the books of Mani and Tizimin
make
the date 1536, as given in numerals, an impossible one. But, if the date as given in Maya terms is to be accepted at all (and it certainly is too specific to date must have been either be rejected), then by the long count such 1502, 5350, or 12,786 years after the
Stela
Mr. Bowthe lower, and thus
9,
Copan.
ditch favors the lower figure, chiefly because it is at A. D. 34. To get this date the longest possible distance puts Stela from Ahpula that is, death to the end of the katun must be used
almost must be taken to mean tuns short tuns short." can only say here that if, in correcting the figures 1536, as demanded by the immediate context, we make the simplest possible correction, and put them on earlier, 1516, and then take as the unexpired time to the end of the katun he hortes of terms given as possible, or tuns 139 days, bringing the end of Katun 13-Ahau on Jan. 28, 1522, we not only bring the end of Katun 11-Ahau within the year 1541, as is most positively stated by the practically contemporary Pech Chron icle, but we also bring in line nearly all the important events of the Chronicles, from the fall of Mayapan, ca. 1450, the coming of the Spaniards, and the smallpox, in 11-Ahau (1521 to 1541). the conversion to Christianity in 9-Ahau, down to Landa death (1579) in 7-Ahau; as well as many outside references. Any other combination requires harsher emendations somewhere else. But the above choice of the term of tuns 139 days, thus seemingly called for, means that Stela at Copan is dated, by the long count, 5350 years before Ahpula death, or B. c. 3824. Whether this is right, is question for the future. "
"
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
42
terms of our chronology, or
comparisons amount to
method
is
more
fragile
tell
little.
yet,
the event attached to
And
the
especially
favorite
when
it,
fancied
"
"
linguistic
the uncertainties
of spelling and transliteration are considered, and above
all
the
frequent total ignorance of the past history and changes the different
words compared must have gone through
when by any
time
possibility
locality to the other could
physical transmission from one
have taken place.
be commonplaces of research, but
have not quite yet become
since the
it
is
There
so.*
These ought to
to be feared that they is
no need to give
in
stances of such false analogies which have served as the bases
multitude of
for
filiation theories, all
equally well
"
support
Nor on the other mutually exclusive. hand can we deny the existence actually of very great num ber of resemblances and identities which cannot be ignored, ed
"
by
details,
and
all
but must imply connexions of some kind. is
not
Hebrew people because
nor Greeks because they have because of certain local names. stablished as such,
may
The English
nation
had
prime minister Disraeli, Queen Alexandra, nor Romans Such facts even when real, and
it
only be evidence of
contin
ental culture or transcontinental intercourse. It
has been the dictum of
certain school of archaeology,
In ethnology however one troubles oneself little with the detail of It is held quite sufficient to gather from different linguistic structure. couple of hundred vocables, into whose actual peoples and collate "
and then upon dubious, often purely super Or else, ficial and apparent similarities, to deduce linguistic affinities. as is now most in fashion, the claims of linguistic research towards the most modest share solution of ethnological questions are reduced to nature
all
insight
is
lacking,
comparison with other fields somewhat more in line with natural meanwhile pointing for justification to the absurdities set sciences
in
The forth as the results of too far-fetched linguistic deductions. errors and sophistries charged against ethnological linguistics are rather an accidental result of the individuality of single investigators, than essential to the subject. to the credit of recent
are at least scarcely greater than those brief glance at the strange Anthropometry.
They
changes of opinion in the latter field during the last three decades, in spite of all its boasted figures, shows how little ground it has to throw stones. Serious students, such as Wallace and Dall, whose critical ability in Zoomorphology no one can deny, and who do not rest con la Hagenfew skulls of doubtful provenance, gathered tent with Cranio of the wholly negative beck, have come to Dr. Otto Stoll, Maya-Sprachcn dcr Pokom-Gruppe, I, vii, ix. metry."
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX very
still
much
43
in general favor, that all these identities are to
be explained as the natural result of the innate tendencies of untutored men, on their evolutionary stages, to imagine the
From
this as
meet the
rise,
at certain cultural
same myths and invent the same wholly dissent;
principle
it
simply does not
There are of course many
facts.
rites.
which
it
does apply, such as those that both Chinese and Americans
made
paper,
made
tanned leather,
feather
ornaments,
used
and flower names for their children, and so on: facts been used to prove Chinese and American identity,
star
to
which Dr. Brinton
slept at night,
wore
justly
clothes
added
when
in retort that they also
was
it
cold,
and so on.
But
number constantly very great number of facts, Such growing with research, which cannot be so dismissed. are the employment of abstract symbolism, the erection of there
is
great structures
all
having
definite
bearing and evident use, the
myths
all
telling
such
locally,
as
one
the the
and
common
story,
birth-stories
identical astronomical
possession of so-called
and only of
modified
slightly
Huitzilopochtli
and of
Herakles, and the stories of the travail of Latona pursued by the
Python and of the
Woman
clothed with the
Sun
in
Revel
or the universal tradition of seven ancestral caves or
ation;
America, compared with the Tibetan and Puranic stories of the seven lotus-leaves of Sveta-dvipa, the first con
cities
in
tinental
home of
the race
the
Hacha de cobre
of the Miztecs
and the ever-turning spear of jade of the Japanese story of the place where the gods first descended on earth or the whole These things, and host all the more since explanation
question of the origin of the Zodiac.
of others, need the
different
more we are learning of them the more we
enclose
which the hypothetical ex hypothesi, have been aware
facts
could not,
of
which our very
latest
modern
science
is
"
only
Our
find that they
savage
some
now
children
"
facts indeed
learning.*
moment present day speculators never seem to that these things may conceal, and thereby preserve, some real meaning, or be more than nonsense. The theory of mythological interpretation animistic pushed to such extremes as in the explanations of Weber, Keightley, and others, and not absent from the writings of some "
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
44
But while dissenting now wholly from this theory (of coin all respect those who incidentalism one cannot "
"),
time held
in their
it.
It
the duty of the savant to
is
make
the best logical use he can of what he has, and he cannot be criticised for not using finer scales this
than the time affords.
And
theory was needed as an answer to the absurdities, brought
out in utter disregard of physical possibilities, postulating off
hand migrations and
and evolutionary advances to
impossible within the periods allowed for their completion,
tally
and
filiations
any known part of the world or when this theory had its birth, the
utterly without parallel in
page of history. And yet, most of Christendom was
by the Ussherian and history of the whole divine chronology of universe, which simply did not have room in it for all these things to happen naturally and connectedly.
And
still
enthralled
urged that present science had second time we might say in the life of generation ago, humanity, begun to emancipate our ideas of time and evolution, still
it
if
is
it
is
increase in breadth of vision has
the fact
so far applied to every
known
thing but
man
old belief that gave the world 6000 years of
man
thinking
at its
beginning
the
himself.
life,
The
at least put
modern nightmare
gives us
world for hundreds of millions of years without thought, and makes human civilization an ephemeral episode of few seconds of universal duration.
Disregarding, one
is
say wilfully, the fact that every single one of their
ments
in
favor of anthropoid descent for
forced to
own
man would
argu
equally
Americanists (namely, that it was all nothing but ridiculous or con cocted fancy, taken soberly) is bad enough, and argues little breadth or insight, when applied to considered myths of ingl people
Applied to comparative mythology, in the state of things today, it is simply impossible. The plain fact is, that such identities as these common tradition, locally modified must indicate one of two things or by circumstances fact in nature or history, symbolically expressed in different ways according to the times and modes. And it most prob It is indeed hard to account for the ex ably indicates both of these.
alone.
we are and the weight given to some of these myths," now that better appreciation of the scope and greatness of ancient coming to civilizations except they do correspond to actual facts everywhere in nature and history. And it might be worth our while to get at "
tent,
some of
these.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX support
human its
theory
45
the anthropoids are debased offshoots of
stocks,* biology
demands such
still
physical evolution that
its
lapse of time for
adherents oppose and
belittle to
the utmost every bit of evidence of any antiquity even for the
We
physical frame of man.
have, to say nothing of the rest
of the world, Egyptian civilization
now pushed back 10,000 we slowly uncover them)
and (together with others as as far removed as ever from barbarism,
years,
greater as
we go back
but
we
if
not indeed growing
are not allowed anything but
apelike, half arboreal savages 50,000 years ago.
And
yet every
observed fact shows us savage or worn-out races everywhere throughout the world deteriorating and dying out, and nowhere any savages progressing or, unaided by outside influence, de veloping what
we know
as civilization.
of nations,
rise
blotting out;
We
see everywhere the
civilizations,
and we refuse
and their utter
to accept that process as
uni
law through which the destiny of the human race is In fact, we do not seem to believe that working itself out. versal
the
human
race has any destiny;
it
may have
beginning and
an end, but no destiny.
And
so although this
modern
scientific school
began as reaction against the narrowness of theological limitations, both of time and greatness, so hampered and hypnotized has our thought been by both, that
man
is
of nearly as
little
universal
We
its
might just as well acknowledge, once for all, that in spite of present-day currency in England and America, and its pre-emption
science for the of the theory of man physical and mental descent from the anthropoids, is not only not proved, but is vehemently denied by an equally able and scientific, and withal more To logical, body of researchers than those who form its supporters. chain (or even, as with Haeckel, several missing link in fabricate
of the
field
"
links), whose only authority is acknowledged to be its necessity in order to complete the evidence for the theory, and then to declare the
theory proved because the fabricated link fits perfectly the gap it was created for, is equally vicious scientifically whether the fabrication be the work of Let it physicist of renown or linguistic theorizer. simply be agreed, as it now is by all science, that the evolution of form is universal and well evidenced principle, working out through the various well established and comprehensible incidents, such as natural selection, adaptation to environment, and so on yet this statement of the fact is not an explanation of its cause. And every scientific and logical requirement will be equally, and better, met by regarding all
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
46
account with one as with the other, and
we
find
seemingly
ineradicable repugnance to admit that any people had
oped
"
writing before the least possible time ago
we have M. writings
many fragments of one hieroglyphs. Of course it is as
fifty
or
devel fix
And
it,
thus
450 embryo scripts and years may show to be nearly few great stocks of ancient
Terrien de Lacouperie
which another
"
we can
of the Christian era.
usually this side of the year
"
"
impossible to derive the American
races or civilizations from the Chinese, Phoenicians, Hittites,
or any of the cultures of the other hemisphere, if we limit the latter to what we know of their history within the past two or three thousand odd years, and American civilization to the past fifteen hundred years. just as
than that
man
is
The matter
is
somewhat greater
somewhat greater than
fool of
natural caprice.
There
is
one point from which
this question of
American
forms, whether physical, linguistic, or of any kind, as coming, or rather consciousness which needs them brought, into being by the force of That this is absolutely true as the vehicles of its expanding activity. That it is true in every department of in language, anybody can see. That it should be equally true daily life about us, everybody does see. in biology and physics, would not affect the standing or verity of single
observed
fact.
There was, along about the beginning of the Christian era, and for which seemed and after, some very curious movement, It is told to spread itself over nearly the entire world, east and west.
of the early Aztecs that they destroyed the records of their prede It is related that cessors, in order to increase their own prestige." writing once existed in Peru, but was entirely wiped out, and the Inca The un records committed to quipus alone. burning of the books der Tsin Chi Hwangti in B. c. 213 sought to do the same for China. The times of Akbar witnessed much of the same in India. And in Europe almost nothing was left to tell the tale of the great pre-Christian eastern empires and systems of thought so that from the establish ment of State Christianity under Constantine, and the final settlement of the Canon at the Council of Nicaea, an impenetrable veil was drawn over the achievements and greatness of the Past, and all connexion It was some time after this that we find the therewith broken off. heliocentric theory, as well of other worlds, denied would deprive the Earth of its unique and (in Europe), because central eminence." Just as we also today are served up with prehistoric savage and animal ancestors, to the greater glory of presentBut it really is in sober truth only day magnificence. question of mental perspective which does not affect the facts of history, biology, It is only archaeology or language in the least. question of which end of the telescope we look through. "
"
"it
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX American place
origins, at least of
can be studied in
ization,
we
materials
have.
these other matters
human
in
broader
its
lines,
47
society
and
civil
even with what
that of
All language in general. have touched upon are necessary fac
It
is
we
human
and the position of America cannot apart from them, and all of them. But Language touches both the glyphs directly and also all these other things, and is itself of surpassing interest and tors in the question of
human
importance as
From one
study.
Language is man himself, and it Without it man is not man, SelfIt is, as von Humboldt laid being.
point of view
civilization.
is
certainly
expressing and
social
an
down, not an
act but
but
It is the
doing.
formulate thought.
of objectivation,
activity,
It
is
varied forms
man
it
thing done,
the use of the energy of creation,
rainbow bridge be and the outer or lower worlds.
veritable many-colored
not only the expression of
is
it
or energy, not
constant effort of the conscious self to
tween the inner or higher man
And
evolution,
Man
as man, but in
its
the inevitable and living expression of each
is
men
any and every point of time. Itself boundless as an ocean, it is in its infinite forms and streams or body of
at
and colors and sounds, the faithful and exact exponent both of the sources and channels by which it has come, and of the banks in which it is held, racial, national or individual. It is living or dead, forceful or
weak, pure or foul, refreshing or It limits us, but yields to our force. flat, healing or poisonous. Every word or form comes to us with the thought impress
man
of every
We
or nation that has used or molded
must take
selves
as
thought purify
is
it,
we
it
as
it
pass
aflame,
energize it
it
comes, but on.
If
we
our
life
is
stale,
our something intellectual and spiritual
whether as nation or individual, we it,
give
it
unification.
may
form and arrange the new literature, new and
power
and we have
human and
before us.
give
to
beneficent, creative social vehicle of intercourse,
standing, and
it
Or
if
mutual under
our mental or
petty, or egoistic, or seeking
spiritual
for enjoyment
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
48
only rather than action
words and forms we
if
we
and
elaborate
into
nothing in us to give the
some national force
use, but only
use and play with them, petti fy,
we have
left to
while refine, and paint, and
for
meaningless
of
subtleties
form,
every one of which in turn reacts upon our mental and spir
and enchaining
itual life, distracting
and
its
die out
language
us, until at last the nation
for neither can live without the
other.
Now
it
is
evident that the criterion of the perfectness of
comparison of its forms any language is not to be found in or methods with those of any other, but in its fitness as the expression of deeper life, of the best and the greatest that
is
in those
who
use
all in its ability
and stimulate newer and yet greater mental and spir The force behind man, demand activity and expression.
itual
ing expression through him, and
of
and above
it,
all,
of necessity
is infinite
him
only, into the
There
infinite.
human
no
is
limit,
life
nor
man may bring down into the dignifying, broadening and enriching of human life and evolu tion, save in his own ability to comprehend, express, and live it. And the brightness and cleanness of the tools whereby he form ever has been any limit, to what
and
ulates his thought, as well as the worthiness
substance and the forms into which he shapes see, are the essentials
of his craft.
For such
its
own
tenant
and be taken by those who can use no
for others to
it
the
economy of
fit
vehicle will
and the
unfit left to
is
nature, which wastes nothing in reality, that
be taken possession of by
fitness of the
better.
Before, then, taking up the great formal classes into which
language at large
is
usually divided,
it
will
be necessary to say
few words as to the foundations of form that
we may
standpoint outer
then proceed to consider these classes from the
of their
inner meaning rather than
solely
of the
and by seeking to understand the mental and equipment and life of those that used them, may per better fitted finally to enter into the genius of
in
and spoken languages, and to interpret through the detail more of which those forms were
their written
them
in language,
form;
spiritual
haps
itself
in
COMMENTARY ON both for
and used
fitted
CODEX
THE) PEREZ
method
Such
to express.
essential
is
any language or culture, but
the understanding of
it
is
absolutely necessary in the case of these
so great ates us
non-Aryan tongues, the distance both of time and thought which separ
is
from them.
If
which they expressed
we
out to compare the forms by
set
their thought with those within
which we
develop ours, or approach these cultures and peoples in the attitude
of
alien
criticism,
the needles of our collection,
broad
close
in culture
before us.
than
we
many
ways dead forms on
interesting
shall not only
of them, but
show ourselves
we
shall simply
doors of discrimination and understanding
and
The question
appeal to us? their
"
"
mental lorgnette and impale their
through less
study
their
but,
How
How
do their forms and ways did those forms, and ways, achieve
is
not,
underlying objects, and what was the thought behind
them? Life
is
action,
and without
activity
whatever powers
within any conscious being are only potential. the inner
bridge
man and
Activity
lie
the
is
the outer world, by which
he impresses his thought, in forms, on chaos or the atoms about him, receiving in return increased knowledge and exper ience of all he touches, and knowledge of himself through the results of his
and man.
own
For
this
actions;
and
it
is
reason the verb, the word of action,
most important and most developed part of speech. hypostases of the world
and
life, it is
man
the bridge between
The
three
as of language, are the self, activity,
for the expression of
all
the
is
and
the possible varied
forms of any lan from the way in which these
relations between these three, that all the
And guage come into being. forms are developed, and the
relative
importance
which
is
given to this or that form of thought or activity, the character of the people, their grasp of nature, and their own conception
of themselves and their
the world, can be seen.*
exceedingly interesting to trace the course of criticism since the appearance of Wilhelm von Humboldt great work, Ueber die Verschicdenhcit des tnenschlichen Sprachbaucs und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts (Berlin, 1836). Dr. Brinton gave it most unqualified approval; (see especially his monoIt
is
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
50
Some languages have without any loss of self-assertive,
with
the
impress
strong
of
impersonality,
virility
others are strongly egotistic and
perhaps
the
lack
braggart
of
genuine
Each spoken language that we know has its own color and tone, to which our thought must respond, if we strength.
would know and use
To
well.
speak good Swedish, instance, requires clear thinking to an exceptional degree.
show
this,
the
form
lish
expression,
of
come
"
We as
hither"
have the
and the
is
"
"
it
come
simply bad
(kom
hither
"
hit,
in
grammar
instead of
auxiliary
is
it
the ordinary
ha r)
is
Eng
imperative.
has become
Compare
To
the use
Swedish;
in
kom
English, but
linguistic distinction lost.
common
which
here,"
for
stilted,
also the use of fa,
nor are these exceptions, but, on the
Also to enunciate the lan
contrary, characteristic examples.
guage rightly one must hold the back and neck erect and the muscles firm. graph read before the American Philosophical Society in 1885, and Prof. H. Steinthal (Grammatik, Logik and printed the same year). inner form the most import Psychologic, 1855) calls the subject of treatment of it his ant one in linguistic science, and von Humboldt And so on. But the work has greatest contribution to that science. "
"
nevertheless received little attention from large number of writers, These two views, when one unclear." most of them declaring it studies the various writers, seem to follow closely upon the stand Those who study points from which each approaches the study. language (perhaps one should here say, languages) as phenomenon, use out of little set of external forms, an act, thing done, get "
work. Those who see it as human activity," an energy, get much. This is quite apparent in one of the clearest and ablest linguistic works which has recently appeared, Dr. Adolf Noreen Vart Sprak (in vols., still in course of publication, Lund, 1903 work of far wider linguistic value than appears from its title. later), Dr. Noreen, however, dismisses von Humboldt work, and the sub few pages, and the results are apparent ject of "inner form," with in several interesting points. In the first place, in the course of an acute and critical analysis, wherein he shows that the purpose of
von
Humboldt
"
speech is not simply expression of thoughts or ideas, but the com munication to some other person of the knowledge of the ideas so held by the speaker, he goes on to say the same knowledge of wishes could be communicated by his saying want you to come as by his saying just This is quite true; but the Come. "
"
Language is the bridge from man to quite different. and it is creative activity of man. Of course Dr. Noreen, later volume, where he most lucidly analyses the terms words,
energic effect
man, in
is
forms, and concepts, etc. (ord, morfcm. scmcm, etc.), and corrects many errors of definition made by his predecessors, acknowledges the
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
51
In some languages the speaker thinks of himself and his
completed action as inseparable, as single idea, as the Latin have eaten; in others he thinks of himself subcon edi for
have
sciously as possessing the results of his action, as our
eaten;
and
ates himself
in others, as
and
some grammars, past;
in
as in
others, as our is
am
after eating.
Maya, the verbal concept own, we
live
the chief tense.
in the
in the present;
The mere
In
starts with the
choice of shall
future auxiliary denotes
as the first person
7C-J//
the Irish peasantry, he separ
his action entirely, as
Welsh, the future or
among
specific
mental quality.
Now
the expression of
all
these infinite shades of relation-
tionship between the self, the activity and the world, in
two ways
position
The customary
division
or
placement
of
languages
into
achieved
and
syntax is
is
form.
Monosyllabic,
Agglutinative, Incorporating, and Inflectional, and this division will suit
our purpose, though
it
must be used with
care.
It is
held in the ordinary theory that these classes must represent successive stages
of linguistic perfection, each in turn being
higher in the scale than the other, they having grown one the other as the race advanced.
By
the theory the monosylla-
his whole admirable work, still between the two forms analytical and critical as it is, is devoted to this phase of language as medium of com mere phenomenon, set of forms which serve as all there is to know about From this standpoint, munication. But from the other, the language when we have classified its forms. con study is ever leading us into the regions and depths of man and the sciousness, his creative activity as it goes out to the world this position, can hence only be true definition of language,
difference
"
(von Humboldt, Gesammelte
Werke, VI, 42) It is further not unworthy that, except where directly re quired in treating of verbal categories, nearly all of the enormous number of illustrations which Dr. Noreen chooses for his points, are nouns, names of things, and vary rarely verbal forms, words of action and doing. But it is simply fact that all the potency of language is in the verb, and almost all there is of language, in philosophic sense, lies there. The verb is the bridge of communication and action upon external things, just as is language itself, going man. And it is noteworthy that the recognition of this position of the verb, together with these other matters of which we are speaking, seems nearer at hand and clearer to those students who are led beyond Aryan languages to the study of American and Asiatic, especially Central and Northern Asiatic. For instance, G. Gabelentz, Die Sprachwissenand other works. schaft, genetic
one."
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
52
lower than the agglutinative, and inherently less useful. But the theory does not work out in practical application to
bic
is
the facts in
left
we have
to deal with, for while
we cannot
find
still
the world
of sufficient
any agglutinative languages representative culture to bring into our present consideration,
we do
find
hind
greater than the form.
monosyllabic in the highest rank, and meeting In short, the latter may be the highest cultural requirements. theoretically the inferior tool, but the genius of thought be is
piece with
burnt
the brushes made.
stick,
One man can draw
master
daub with
another only paint
all
Once again we must not judge by our pre
conceived preferences of form.
Omitting therefore the modern remnants of agglutinating languages, outside of America, as affording us no literary ma terial all
of value for our study,
the other great classes
we
single
tween the ideographic and the mentioned.
And
the
shall find at
broad
line
the
literal
moment we draw
once drawn across of division, be
same as already
this line as
an exponent
of the mental and spiritual thought-life of the different peo
we
ples,
shall
find
not only molding their language
it
forms,
both written and spoken, but manifest as well in their
And
philosophy, and even their social polity.
must be
fair in
our comparisons, and not set
in the concrete against
art,
of course
we
Chinese coolie
an English statesman, nor any concrete
example of another kind of culture highest bloom to which we believe
in
its
own
decay
with
the
type to be able
to carry us. It is
would be absurd
to say that the ratiocinative, literal
higher than the ideal.
One man
sees directly the
mind
meaning
another of the things, the events and situations before him And contrary to many of our current be reasons it all out. liefs,
the former
is
often the
man
of action
he sees at
flash
and gets things done. His thought, and his words are likely to be so as well.
to the heart of the matter, his activity, is vivid
The
he be broadminded, and not merely sentimental, And the type of mind is indeed likely to be the practical man. that is made manifest to us by these great non-Aryan Ianidealist, if
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
53
Of course idealism in forms, is the former. guages and its decadence becomes negative, inactive, self-consuming and no longer creative. But in its bloom the direct vision may be even more active, more practical, than are the reasoned
processes.
Much
the Chinese hieroglyphs
ther
whether the character using
word
"T**-
S\
ien.
are
ideograms or phonograms,
for
instance,
It is
idea of
And
be written language otherwise. letter-combination
Heaven
is
of the idea as of the sound; is
radical.
The glyph
word only through
is
it
way
in
is
relation of spoken
we
the
so call
graphic to the alphabetic,
formal combination
it,
is
And
is
of
when
symbols
separate.
wholly adventitious;
word
is
for
The the
equally adventitious.
of written speech from the ideo the descent of the thought further
while
it
may
be (and in the course
of universal evolution rightly so) necessary to descend into the
picture
related to the idea directly, the spelled
sound to glyph
into material forms.*
to us
but the difference of procedure
relation of the idea to the spelled ascent, if
equally true that the
much
as
single vocal speech-elements, meaningless
The
conveys to those
Heaven, or the spoken it would not necessarily both, in
primarily the
it
whe
ink and paper has been spent over the
for our thought
bondage of matter and form, for
its
know-
was not until after this paper was already in type that my atten tion was directed to the complete agreement of this and the succeeding sentences with the following passage in The Secret Doctrine, by H. P. After saying that some of Blavatsky, London, 1888, vol. II, page 199. It
the Atlantean races spoke the agglutinative languages, the passage con While the cream of the Fourth Race gravitated more and tinues more toward the apex of physical and intellectual evolution, thus leav ing as an heirloom to the nascent Fifth (the Aryan) Race the inflec "
highly developed languages, the agglutinative decayed and re mained as fragmentary fossil idiom, scattered now, and nearly have Note the words limited to the aboriginal tribes of America." inflectional languages as an italicized, marking the evolution of the attendant phenomenon on physico-intellectual evolution, compare the tional,
"
"
thesis, already quoted, that the incorporpassage with von Humboldt ative quality denotes an exaltation of the imaginative over the ratiocinative processes of mind in its users, and further with the surviving genius of Chinese, the type of monosyllabic languages, and the agree ment is evident. Von Humboldt, however, carry out so fully the archaeological results, for which indeed the materials were in his day still lacking. See also other passages in The Secret Doctrine.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
54
ledge and experience, and for the development of matter and
form
into fitter vehicles of thought, nevertheless the process
binding and for is,
time at
for
is
time an enchaining one, and the thought least,
likely to be
in
lost
the confusion of
forms.
Thus we may
lay
down
hieroglyphic form of
that
must properly,
our fundamental proposition
as
better
is
writing
to
our
literal
thought
(though wrongly so
in
implies
in essence),
to,
and
development, accom
in the period of its natural
pany the imaginative processes of mind.
fitted
Or, since imagination
some degree the
we might perhaps
fanciful
better say
form of writing is the fit attendant and exponent of those functions of mind which cognize the inner meanings of the facts of life directly, rather than those which study them
that that
And also, that through the correlation of their phenomena. the development by any people of an alphabetic out of hiero greater advance in linguistic
glyphic system, does not imply
perfection on their part, but indicates
corresponding mental
and inner change of attitude towards ideas and things, and different conception of the self as related to them all. It
not at
is
all
necessary
gained by one method
True
science
may
as the other.
If
is
assume
under one
set
study of the
illustration,
knowledge
of circumstances
we
the
evidenced in the clearest manner.
this
the
will take the type of the so-called
primitive form, the monosyllabic all
that
deeper or more exact than the other.
exist as fully
we
to
scientific
involved in and conveyed by the
To
most
shall find
note but one
and philosophical ideas
word
ung, for Space, ether,
the fundamental substratum of sound or vibration, as well as
and power, will dis close an understanding that has nothing to fear from modern the
"interetheric"
central point
comparisons.
And
ment of speech
the very fact that Chinese has had to depend on place its
is
monosyllables to express
all
the relations for which
called upon, instead of relying
on changes of form,
seems to have, and indeed has so stimulated the development of pure linguistic power that the language is actually as per-
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX feet
as
is
and clear
medium
55
of cultured and learned intercourse,
most de
the Sanskrit, the supreme type of the so-called
And by
veloped form, the inflectional. of the ideographic element
has not.
skrit
No
its
possession
vividness which the
has
it
reason of
language can be
San
highly developed one
which does not provide in some way for the expression of all possible needed relations between the three fundamental pos
and
tulates
of
world
and Chinese does
ture
life
the
activity
self,
the
and
action
the
spite of its monosyllabic struc
by the development of
its
syntax of position.
And
should be remembered further that Chinese syntax, in
it
strict
correspondence to the genius of the language, is not the same formal thing that syntax is with our inflectional tongues, but includes, or rather
ment of
primarily based on the harmonic adjust
is
the words.
the inherent basic ideas of
The
Chinese monosyllables are then not the naked separate things they are in the dictionary, but the whole phrase
on the contrary as much
is
more
and often
unit as one of
so.
This integral unity of the whole expression, dominated by perspective of ideas rather than of forms,
which
is
achieved in Chinese by the elaboration of placement, of the languages of the
also characteristic of
is
American continent; but, these languages being polysyllabic, method described as the vividness and unity are attained by Incorporation, whereby th
ac es or es of relation are so in
cluded in or attached to the leading word that the whole ex pression assumes the form and sound of similar
process
compound
takes
sentence.
place
So
single
with the various
word.
And
elements of
that although this one of the divis
ions of language approaches very closely to the Inflectional in its
external forms,
it
yet has held to the vividness and essential
characteristics of the ideographic method.
And
it
is
of the utmost importance for the decipherment of the
point
Maya
to note as has been stated before, that their syntax of
combination must follow that of the spoken language, which
we know.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
56
There
one broad
of division marking all the lan the line between the guages and civilizations of the world is
line
ideographic and the literal;
marks the use of hieroglyphic
it
or of alphabetic writing, and
it
denotes
culture
so widely
from ours, modes of thought so distinct, views of life relation to it one might almost say so opposite to and man different
most distant
ours, as to point unmistakably to
and
past,
former world-culture probably as wide-spread in its day as is now ours or more so. And it is one of the strangest and
most remarkable of the phenomena we are considering, that the two divisions have overlapped each other in time to such degree that whereas
we have
most perfect type of Aryan, or inflectional languages, the oldest of them all; on the other hand we have in Chinese an equally perfect linguistic
medium
in
Sanskrit, the
of the other type, kept alive into our
own
times.
When we
consider the development and status of the
ican civilizations
which have been revealed to
when we have once opened our minds for
we know have
all
and especially
to the possibility that
world-civilizations different in their time
may
us,
Amer
from ours
in
ours,
existed and been blotted out ages
ago, leaving linguistic traces, and perhaps perpetuating cultural
remnants
few parts of the
in
earth,
recognize the breadth of the problem
it
we
is
impossible not to
are considering.
All
over the American continent at the time of the Discovery we see cultures and systems whose time had come. Back of most of the North and South American tribes
we
find the
remains
of mighty and utterly extinct civilizations only their dim of higher culture from Mexico memory left. In to
Peru we see the ancient
to our
own
times
civilization
brought further
but there also, in process,
down
the incidents
all
Internecine strife, and an expiring greatness. invasion from outside, changes of center, are all going on, and
of break-up all
marked by
ilization.
ledge
Of
steady decrease in everything that means civ the ancient mathematical and astronomical
corner of which
remains, only
is
distorted
revealed to us by the
fragment appears
in
Maya
the
know
glyph
Mexican,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
57
cruder rebus-writing. where also hieroglyphs have yielded to The stately and incomparable compositions and architecture of
Copan and Quirigua have
Palenque,
courts and local strifes of Chichen Itza
to the
yielded all this
ball
following the
very course of changing historical succession preserved in the The later the date, the lower in every case the Chronicles. this is impossible not to recognize,
culture
of any different course of events. of the Aztec nation,
Roman,
the
break-up
Of
we
nor have
course
we
traces
see the rise
small cycle, but like the Gothic upon
end of the general American an incursion of barbarians settling on and pre
comes
it
at
the
serving for us fragments of the culture that preceded them,
happened over and over again all over the world. And yet even the Mex the same with the Incas in Peru.
just as has
And
demands our high respect, comparing favorably with European of the same period. Indeed it was actually far ican culture
ahead of the
latter in
matters of education and
many
points
of polity.
seeming greatness, its heart and energy were gone, just as with Peru, and both yielded to what on the face seems miracle, but was only the expression of that
But
in spite
force which
race and
of
its
was preparing the American continent
civilization,
still
now
only
Mayan empire had
already broken up.
the
history
archaeological
and soon
its
And
beginnings.
even as
of the other hemisphere
new
The
we
write,
is
being
on the heels of Manabi comes the Chimu Val
repeated here ley,
in
for
it
will
be with America as with Egypt
one
an up-to-date work on its early his tory, for new discoveries will carry it back further, and to greater scope, before the previous ones can be edited and will not be able to print
gotten to press.
Sharpe
Compare
the few pages of earliest Egypt in
history, with Flinders
Petrie
work of
decade or
so ago, and that with the situation today.
decipherment and publication all over the world can no longer keep pace with discovery; and It
the
is
simple
come
fact that
for archaeology to begin to survey these
remnants, engineering works that would tax any modern na-
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
58
tion with all our appliances, vast ruined cities, one above the
and writings, the traces of peo as ples whose very names are lost to history whole, and to ask itself how long it must have taken for all these works other, innumerable languages
and decay of the that supported them, and gave environment for
to be accomplished, let alone civilizations
for the birth
the development of such technical
mous bulk of fineness
is
Pyramid with an accuracy beyond the instruments to measure. For not only
to be considered
over
scattered
as could finish the enor
the Great
of our best
mere bulk
skill
earth
the
to
though there keep
all
the
is
enough of that available
possible
wholly incommensurate time achiev ing them, but the ability to conceive and carry out such works. What sort of people leveled Monte Alban for its crown of
craftsmen of the world
pyramids,
dreamed
and
executed
the
stucco
modelings
of
Palenque, built the temple of Boro Budur in Java, cut the
Bamian
statues of the
Hindu Kush, and
so on, and so on, for
If they had such appliances as we have, page after page? if they must be ranked at least in our class for having them they did them without our great engines, what sort of men
And
were they? appliances,
is
have made the
it
if
not
they could do these things without our fair
inference that they
could easily
tools, or others better
perhaps? One fact is becoming more prominent with every advance fact of the greatest linguistic of archaeology over the world, interest, namely that ancient civilizations and empires, as whole, lasted longer than ours of today.
Consider
how many
has had in the last and successive empires 2000 odd years, our history; and how long each of our cul All of them put together would go into one tures has lasted. of these older periods, and have plenty to spare. Passing
different
over what
may
be the real meaning and bearing of this fact
on the problem of universal history and human evolution, and the position of our race today, the linguistic considera tions
which follow are most
interesting.
If the fundamental thesis of language as direct correspondence to
human
and expression of
all
activity
inner
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX we have
motives and forces of the users,
unknown
survival to our day, an
59
here its
period past
key to the
own
time, of
the Chinese type.
Of
the development, modification
we have ample
material in our
own
and decay of languages
times for study, the periods
over which the modifying forces operate being an equal meas ure of the periods of national activity and change. And, what is perhaps not always sufficiently recognized, we have an elaboration of the formal elements going on under very dif ferent impulses, at different periods of the life of the language.
The time has come
in the history of
greater part on the world
stage
the national life and aroused
worked
to
bethan era
its
ushered
energies, or other causes have life;
spiritual
an Eliza
forerunner,
frequently by
in,
to play
it
some danger has threatened
quicken the mental is
people for
Chau
and the language responds, its forms develop and are Or else some fitting or amalgamating force comes perfected. cer,
in
from
outside, the life of the people
is
widened, new blood
and the forms of the language respond. Or perhaps, when they may seem to have come to the tether minds turn back to older, even pre end of things, and men enters in every sense,
historic
times, seeds long buried
spring up, and
and forgotten
true national Renaissance
cases the change and elaboration of
new
life;
the
vehicle
follows.
forms
being molded and
is
in the nature
is
symptom of
expanded to
the growing thought.
But
it
is
time
not always so.
In these
when
fit
the
greater outgoing force, the activity of life, wanes and, after or less period of settled conditions, period of proper use and And government of the regions occupied, change sets in.
then
we may have
linguistic
again the wholly deceptive phenomenon of
amplification;
but
it
is
the false activity of decay.
and begun to feed upon itself. The national impulse has changed from achievement to gratifica tion, more and more sources are drawn upon to minister to
The energy has turned
in
enjoyment, and that enjoyment becomes an art; forms of every kind are subtly refined in its service, and linguistic forms its
60
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
with them.
And
then the very period when all these elements are pointed to with pride as the this
formal
material,
is
The
and progress.
evidence of culture
thought-life
of the
nation has lost itself in the conflict and confusion, in the dis
forms into which
tractions of the its
it
has molded the matter
creative force had entered.
We
have thus
and languages, as in individuals, slow growth, use, and quick or
in nations
phenomena of birth, death, all marked by various degrees and the
and every one
disease,
the
of general
facts
that
not
latter,
life
are
only
These are
corresponding to those insurance tables. But, as with
average,
form the bases for
these
moral question.
root
at
signs of health or
quite
there
variations
for
inheritance,
and so on, but there are here and there cases out and out exception which from all we can see must
class,
locality,
be assigned to some external force in operation on the indiv
We
idual.
call
them
"
freak
occurrences, only because
"
When we
meet
tables to cover
them
cannot see the wider law or causes at work.
them as
in sufficient
far as
we
numbers,
we
We
have,
Other causes
can, again in general only.
elude us, though they must have as
great
we
still
fountain somewhere.
our general averages, the sudden inexplicable and
exceptions
to
two opposite phenomena. One is dazzling rise on the world stage of
totally
insignificant
people, the other the seeming arrest for long periods of time
of the normal processes of even incipient decay. ing the latter point,
cultures as
different find the
it is
strange indeed that in
those of
same law apparently
of
properly
touch
two such widely
China we should
work; the periods are vastly We have no relative duration.
at
unlike in actual, but not so in
way
Iceland and
And
placing the
maintenance of
Icelandic
and
Chinese as they have been other than by simply laying down the existence of what we may call Law of Retardation,
whose ultimate causes we cannot fathom or will
stand as an opposite phase of the
which
is
plained.
more frequent
in
operation,
classify, but
Law but
is
which
of Stimulation, equally
unex
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
61
we will now regard the languages and cultures of the world, we will find all the phases of linguistic and cultural If
with about the same
activity, operative
of rapidity,
all
over both hemispheres, save in places protected by our Law of Retardation. We will find the rate of changes and succes sions generally far less rapid the farther back in time we go;
and
finally
we
will find
and marked acceleration on
special
both sides of the Atlantic during the
thousand years, new race in America.
incident to the placing of
So
of
cent
we
for the facts as
American
past
find them.
civilizations
last
They
point to the des
from
past
more probably, of world-wide
continental, or far
who
all
period
extent.
of
For
can imagine that people great enough to build as these did, should not also have navigated? Why should we assume in the face of other experiences, that
ations
mean
Maya
dates and calcul
nothing, except on the general principle that they
know
as
much
we
as
do,
and were doubtless
liars?
hundred years ago that Hindu exact astronomical observations must date back at least 5000 years, Bailly
proved over
and that they were
in possession of
long before Europe was. certainly
known both
to
And
minutely accurate tables the rotundity of the earth was
them and the other great nations of
antiquity.
today pushing back the dates of fixed and acknowledged history almost to the date given by the Egyp tians to Solon for the submersion of the great Atlantean is
Archaeology
and
land;
if
is
we can
Maya glyphs, and open that from now may show us beyond all
but read the
door, another twenty years
possible dispute evidences in every part of the earth belt of
contemporaneous culture, different from and precedent to the Aryan.
monograph, based upon and having to has with the Maya glyphs, their interpretation and
have so far
do as
it
in this
their place in the linguistic field, limited myself to
and consideration of the Traite de
facts presented to us
Astronomic Indienne
et
an analysis
by those
linguis-
Orientate, Disc. Prel. et seq.
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
62 tic
we have
and cultural
But there
actually before us.
is
one further problem which is suggested by it all. It is this Where, in point of time and place, is the change in the world linguistic and cultural life from ideographic to literal to be sought
for,
and what
is
its
such an enormous period of time as that
of
some view of
Old
World
it
it
There are various
cannot be had.
and
history
Separated from us by still cannot believe is,
rationale?
language,
of
partly
facts
prehistoric
Europe, partly of Asia, an analysis of which would extend this paper too far into other fields but apart entirely from the question of myths or traditions,
various actual
observed phenomena both of language and writing, especially in Central Asia, which do not fit into any of the ordinary theories,
and which do suggest
conclusion.
In point of locality, at
it
as
least,
simple
"
"
strates the unity of the
tions of dates
Aryan
and even of the
race,
linguistic
the conclusion agrees
but as theory Aryan home must be remembered that however
with the usual this latter
this,
far as concerns fully
beyond that
it
demon
fact all ques
state of civilization at the time,
are not matters of history as yet for us, but only of theory as to
which our present
faulty as
it
"perspective"
may
be once more as
has often been heretofore.*
The
suggestion above is linguistic, and in that phase is given as but, as stated, it is at the same corollary to the foregoing discussion time in accord with the theory in its essentials (though not Aryan in its hypothetical and ultra-historical speculations), and it also finds confirmation by various passages in The Secret Doctrine, by H. P. The traces of an immense civilization, Blavatsky, as already quoted. This civilization is unde even in Central Asia, are still to be found. The Eastern and Central portions of those niably prehistoric. were once upon time the Nan-Shan and the Altyn-Tagh regions whole geologi covered with cities that could well vie with Babylon. cal period has swept over the land, since those cities breathed their last, as the mounds of shifting sand, and the sterile and now dead of the basin of Tarim testify. soil of the immense central plains ... In the oasis of Cherchen some 300 human beings represent the relics of about hundred extinct nations and very names of which are now unknown to our ethnologists." (Vol. I, page xxxii ct seq.) Travels. See also Col. Prjevalsky Why should it not be so? The above was written in 1888, but the evidences are growing every day, and it will be against all archaeological precedent if far-reaching results do small find, and from Capt. from Dr. Stein Ollone recent researches among the Lolos, and the securing by "
"
"
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX believe that this center of transition
Central
That
Asia,
this
America
north
the
to
was
region
of
sort
the
of
63
somewhere
lay
in
Himalayan range.
great
alembic,
melting-pot
(as
today) for various peoples of an ancient world wide culture, as broad in its scope as the term Aryan is
is
That
today.
we have traces
culture displayed the ideographic traits
this
discussed, and that
at
in
different places
two Americas,
its
between the ideographic and flectional,
"
less
alphabetic.
That
may
then
un nau-
new and
universal
scope as the difference
cultural literal,
definite
covered the
it
debris echappes
les
there
for the use of
vehicle
literal,
That
That coincident with
world-epoch, as wide in
new
more or
whatever continental form they
in
commun."
totally
left
the world.
have existed, leaving us there frage
has
it
was
human
finally
formed
thought, the in
was perfected
this vehicle
some great speech, the direct ancestor of Sanskrit, into the forms of which were concentrated all power of the ancient hieroglyphs and their underlying concepts. For San into
skrit,
while the oldest
is
also the mightiest of
and no one who has studied
mars;
its
speech from educated native mouths, can
hand
forms, or heard call
it
anything but
into the Sanskrit
forms, was on the other per
petuated on into the special genius of Chinese, in which, as
know
it,
form
so
we have much as
of method and essence. said to the contrary,
derivative, not
know them, but by
we
retarded survival, not of course of outer
in spite of all that is
have
its
That the force which went on
concentrated spiritual power. the one
Aryan gram
from
And
in
Tibetan,
suspect that
either Chinese or Sanskrit as
medial line from
common
point.*
we we Of
him, as we are informed, of the long-sought knowledge of their hieroglyphic system. The study of Tibetan has so far been approached almost exclusively from the south, that is by those already familiar with Sanskrit and the overwhelming influence exercised To this fact, as well Pali. on literary Tibetan by the Buddhist propaganda, is due the difficulty
The
however, do never Some theless exist. concerning both Chinese and Tibetan, which seem to be entirely omitted in such later standard works as those of Summers, Wade, and Giles, are to be found in the almost forgotten Chinese Grammar of Dr. Marshman, Serampore, 1814.
one meets
in
any study of
its
origins. interesting facts
traces,
COMMENTARY ON THE PEREZ CODEX
64
course the time for such changes must have been enormous; but whatever it was, it was no greater in its realm as time,
than were the mental differences in theirs. are equally
Certain
human
data.
other
facts
source and
point
to
American
the
of this ancient epoch.
around the Mediterranean basin we
all
ished culture,
unknown
to
favorite
locality,
"
Empires,"
analogies.
or
And
it
both
Atlantic
briefly that
van
living only in tra
of this culture
from
have constructed for us as
his particular
many
different
by theories each supported by various details of One calls them Tartars, another Hittites, another
Pelasgians, and so on.
have as
different
they
find traces of
our history, and
various investigators, each approaching
ries,
They are
and some archaeological remains.
dition
And
fact
And
of them, in each of the theo
many unexplained
great
from those of our
all
historical nations.
characteristics,
Some of
these
most markedly the Basque, but also not few at greater distance, have definite American similarities. It far guess that these fragments represent an might not be characteristics,
eastward movement, which
later in the history
of the Aryan
development met and was pushed back westward again by the dominant Aryan race from its Central Asian fully center.
This
am
And opened to glyphs.
is
the future province of Archaeology.
convinced that the widest door there
this past
of the
The narrow
human
set
is
that of the
to
be
Maya
limitations of our mental horizon as to
the greatness and dignity of
were
race,
is
man, of
his past,
and of human
back widely by Egypt and what she has
had to show, and again by the Sanskrit; but the walls are still there, and advances, however rapid, are but gradual.
With will
the reading of
fall,
and
America
believe
new conception of
themselves
past history will come.
ttffc.
i^s*
^g**^** ^5c*^Vt.oo
M*
ASP
RTH
